


How Much, Baby, do we Really Need?

by Queen (ramble)



Category: Glee
Genre: Alumni, Anderson-Hummel, Baby, Canon Compliant, Daddies, Daddies!Klaine, Domestic, Family Feels, Fatherhood, Fluff, Friendship, Impromptu Singing, Klaine, Lima, M/M, Married Couple, Married Life, McKinley - Freeform, Music, New York, Parenthood, Parents, Post-Canon, Series Finale, Surrogacy, Surrogate, Weddings, married!klaine, season 6
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 03:04:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 47,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3593994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramble/pseuds/Queen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt and Blaine had always known they wanted kids. They'd also known that becoming parents would, by requirement of the laws of nature, be a long journey just to stand the chance. So what if they had only been married two years, so what if all their friends thought it was too soon to start? They know it's time. And in the same spirit that led them to their spontaneous wedding, they're going to follow their instincts. No matter what it takes, Kurt and Blaine are going to be daddies.</p><p>(Set during 2017 through 2020 following their journey to fatherhood and just how indeed did Rachel end up being their surrogate?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Father's Day, 2017

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darcangell23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darcangell23/gifts).



> As soon as I saw the finale I knew I had to explore this storyline further. Rachel is Klaine's surrogate. It's gorgeous. There is, of course, a million ways that could have gone (did she donate her eggs or did they use someone else's? how long were they thinking about it before they decided to go with surrogacy and how did Rachel come to be the lady they went with?). Mine is just one potential path that just generally feels good and right to me. 
> 
> I do ask that you be a bit patient with me because normally I write the entire story then edit it 2 or 4 or 8 times before I post it. So if you see something like words that got left out or sentences that don't make sense can you shoot me a message about it? 
> 
> (Gifting this work to the person who taught me that Glee wasn't what I thought it was back when it premiered and the bratty girls of my high school show choir wouldn't shut up about it and I hated the show just because I hated them because they were the bullies in my life - she showed me not that it didn't have the catty and annoying elements, but that it had so much more. It was a beautiful trip to experience even if I was very late to the game. I've never felt so good about a TV show as I did when I binge watched Glee for the first time.)

Surprise visiting Mr...Will (Kurt would never get used to that, not ever) on father’s day had been a good idea. Emma had just had twins last fall and giving the two of them a couple of hours had easily been the very best gift that any of his students had given him to date. Also Kurt couldn’t get the twins out of his head. One had been curled up in his dad’s arms guzzling away at their trainee sippy cup. His dad looked just like he did in some of those old pictures, back when Kurt was a baby, with this sort of prideful glow because he was the one that this baby needed right in this very moment. He only got to raise one kid though. Kurt. And they had had quite a beautiful journey together. Burt deserved the chance to have that again, even if he was just, say, the grandpa.

The thing that lingered longer, though, was the other baby. In Blaine’s arms. As they danced about. As Blaine tried to copy a routine Daniel had ‘made up.’ Truth be told it looked an awful lot like a clumsy version of some of the routines that Kurt was so deeply familiar with. That was when he’d seen it. The gleam in Blaine’s eyes. The two kids. It was their future. With red hair. That part was pretty impossible because their odds of producing red hair were practically zero. But everything else looked exactly like everything he wanted.

“Meet your new baby girl!” the TV blared.

“Emily!” the woman sobbed. Kurt wanted to wrinkle his nose at the name but he couldn’t. There were tears in his eyes.

This was his one a.m. guilty pleasure. Baby shows. Documentaries, long running tv series (except 20-whatever kids and counting - he refused to support anyone who would advocate so strongly against LGBT rights). Reruns. Movies. Look Who’s Talking and Too had become a tiny bit of a guilty pleasure. But not the ones with the talking dogs. That one just lost sight of everything that made him cry in the first two movies.

Blaine knew nothing. Or if he did know he didn’t say anything. Usually Kurt watched it when he was home and Blaine wasn’t. But they were both in Lima still, ready to dedicate the next day to spoiling Burt Hummel some more. And maybe paying a visit to Mr. Anderson if only to say hello. Kurt was trying to be a good son-in-law but Mr. Anderson didn’t even want to acknowledge their marriage. As he put it, it wasn’t that he didn’t like Kurt and it wasn’t that he wasn’t ok with his son being gay and with a man. It was that two men just should not get married. Hopefully he’d come around before the two had kids. Kurt knew Blaine wanted him in their lives.

“I didn’t know this show was still on the air,” his father spoke beside him. He hadn’t even noticed the man approaching.

“Oh yeah, I guess it is,” he said as he reached for the remote control. There was no pretending he hadn’t been set on this channel. The control was well out of his reach from his position. Even with all the stretching he did there was no hope for him. His body wasn’t built to reach that thing without putting his feet down. Burt picked it up for him.

“How new is this hobby?”

“What hobby?” Burt motioned to the television.

“And don’t get smart with me. I know you too well and I’m not nearly as dumb as people think I am.”

“...I don’t know. I caught an episode of that new show about the parents with septuplets...about six months ago. It was interesting.”

“This isn’t that show.”

“I know.” Burt sunk down on the couch with him. “I sort of started watching a lot of other shows like these. They’re everywhere.”

“I guess. If you look for them.”

“...Yeah.” They watched as the family took little Emily - a premie baby - home for the first time. Everything, so they said, was different with a premie baby. “Wasn’t I premature?”

“Only about...almost two weeks? Not like that kid. With you it’s entirely possible we just got your due date wrong and you were actually really close to being on time. You were just a bit small. Didn’t cry much. Slept more than we thought you would. The doctor said that was just because you were probably so exhausted. Its hard being a baby. You have to fuss all the time and be spoiled constantly-” He laughed as Kurt gave him a gentle shove. “Have you given any thought to your own?”

“My own what?”

“Baby.” There it was. Out in the open for them both to digest. Burt didn’t even realize what he was suggesting until it had come out of his mouth. His son - his one and only child - was old enough and secure enough in a marriage to be thinking about children.

Man did he feel old.

“Dad…”

“Yes Kurt?”

“I...Ok I have. I mean, we have enough money and we’re really stable in our careers. I’m pretty sure almost no one our age can boast that. We’re great. I never, ever, thought that I'd be doing this well as a performer. Let alone me and my husband both being this successful. But there’s so many reasons why its not a good idea to be thinking about this right now.”

“Like?”

“Like...we always rush into things. We said I love you within what two months? We got engaged before Blaine had even graduated from high school!”

“And that turned out so badly.”

“Well...at first it did…”

“But what about now?” Kurt let himself fall into silence before his father could trap him in even more logic. That didn’t stop Burt of course. “What you two did was a bit crazy and I could have warned you that at least one of you would panic, committing to something so grown up at such a young age. But when you actually got married things really started working out, didn’t they?”

“Suddenly all those fights were a lot easier to manage. They weren’t a sign of doomsday, they were a sign that we were meshing our lives together and that all our dreams were coming true.”

“Mmhm. So, yes, you rush into things and yes you don't always think things through, and babies aren’t something to rush in to. But I know for a fact that a man in your position can’t just accidentally become a father. So what, even if you’re younger than most people like you-”

“Gay men?”

“Yes, among other things. Your whole generation is having babies older now too, right? Maybe it just means that you are ready. It might be a bit crazy. That doesn’t mean you two can’t handle it.”

“...Were you ready?”

“Well, Kurt. I was younger than you are now when you were born. I had just gotten my hands on a broken down old building that I was going to turn into a car shop. We didn’t have any money, I'd spent all my savings on my business dream, and we barely had a stable roof over our heads. So...no.”

“And I turned out just fine.”

“More than fine. I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks Dad.” They both let out a deep sigh. The kind that Kurt had just grown up sighing, just like his father, perhaps because that was how his father sighed. He wanted that. A little child who grew up with some of his subtleties. Who grew up with some of Blaine’s subtleties. A mish-mash of them. A human being all its own that they had raised into the son or daughter that they were proud of. That amazed them the way his father seemed to be amazed by him every single day.

“You should talk to him.”

“Hm?”

“Blaine. You should talk to him.”

“About what?”

“Kids.”

“We do talk!”

“About someday how you’re going to have two kids and it’s going to be lovely, right? You decided on your married name because you wanted your kids to share your last name. Kurt. If you could see yourself right now...someday seems like it could be a lot sooner than some distant unknown day. It could be...a couple of months from now. Or, a year from now more likely.” The young man opened his mouth to deny it but he couldn’t. He was twenty-four years old. Most people his age were just starting to get started with their lives and here he was with every inch of his body bubbling at the idea of cradling his new born baby soon.

“But what if he’s not ready.”

“Then he’s not ready. But you won’t know that until you talk to him.”

“...I’ll think about it.” A yawn escaped him. Burt wrapped an arm around him to squeeze his shoulders. “I love you Dad. I think I’m going to go back to bed.”

“I love you too. Goodnight.” As the father decided to stay up and see how Emily’s tale ended, Kurt crawled himself up the stairs and back to his wonderfully warm and waiting husband. Blaine tried to pretend he was asleep but Kurt knew better. He scooted in behind and wrapped his arm and leg over the man.

“Have you been awake since I left?” His husband let out a sigh before rolling over to face him.

“Yes but don’t blame yourself. I always wake up when you get up. Its instinct. You’re my personal alarm clock.”

“Usually you fall back asleep though.”

“Usually it’s morning back home and I don’t have to be up for another two hours.” Blaine gave him a light kiss. “I can’t sleep in strange beds without you.”

“If this bed is strange then who was I sleeping with in high school.”

“You know what I mean. It’s not _our_ bed.” The bed they’d bought together to fit in with the style of their new apartment. Their marital bed. The bed that had only ever seen them as two husbands who would fight through anything so that they could still be together at the end of each day.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Their lips pulled together like desperate magnets to metal. Soft, sweet, gentle. Like they always belonged together and even though they were still stable entities when they were apart the connection was one that needed to be made. It was more than they could ever have asked for. And as they kissed, all Kurt could think about was how wonderful it would be to have their child nestled in between them as they read him (or her) stories until she (or he) fell asleep. Safe and warm between their two daddies.

Burt was right.

Kurt Anderson-Hummel wanted a baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since you guys get to read this as I write it I'm opening up a couple of polls for you!!!!  
> 1\. Should the baby be boy, girl, or intersex?  
> 2\. Should Kurt or Blaine be the genetic father? (whether or not they know whose it is - which father should the baby resemble?)  
> 3\. BABY NAMES GUYS GIVE ME ALL YOUR IDEAS
> 
> and for your enjoyment Klaine's final duet which was just beautiful and I loved it ugh yes please:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wdmR5pFIno


	2. Today is Where You Book Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title Song:  
> Unwritten - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI  
> Klaine Duet:  
> Happy Together - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEURntrQOg

NYC, city of wonder and dreams and everything the Anderson-Hummel men could have ever wanted when they were children, couldn’t quite handle them sometimes. And that was ok. Most people in the world didn’t constantly carry a song deep in their hearts so powerful that it sometimes just needed to burst out unexpectedly. Despite living in a world immersed in music and musicals people were content to keep their musical moments to singing in the shower or in their cars. Not so with the former New Directions. All of them were apt to break out in song at random. None, however, as much as Kurt and Blaine. They just loved performing duets.

Kurt had started it. He hummed out the familiar guitar notes as the bait while his fingers tangled between those of the man he loved during their after-lunch stroll through their city.

Blaine bit.

“Imagine me and you - I do.  
I think about you day and night.  
It's only right.  
To think about the man you love,  
And hold him tight -  
So happy together.”

Kurt tried not to giggle as Blaine reached his free hand over to pinch at his shoulder. People were looking at them. Not that such things were going to stop them. If he was actually concerned about people watching them then he never would have started singing. It was all in good fun.

“If I should call you up (call you up),  
Invest a dime,  
And say you belong to me  
And ease my mind.  
Imagine how the world could be,  
So very fine -”

He stole a quick kiss before Kurt joined in singing the words. They lost their guitar beat but that was the price they had to pay when they didn’t have a full acapella choir backing them up. A couple of pedestrians out with their boyfriends paused to point and tease the men about the romantic things they could be doing.

“So happy together.  
I can't see me loving nobody but you  
For all my life.  
When you're with me,  
Baby the skies will be blue  
For all my life!”

Kurt dared to spin around to face Blaine - and walk backwards so he could look right into his husband’s eyes. Said husband grabbed both his arms to steer him safely around several passersby. Or, rather, people that they were passing by. Blaine ducked them safely around everything. Kurt just let him lead the way.

“Me and you  
And you and me,  
No matter how they tossed the dice,  
It had to be.  
The only one for me is you,  
And you for me.  
So happy together.”

They were definitely too much for New York City. There were some - mostly ladies, honestly - who were enamored with the two men waltzing their way down the avenue as though there were actual drums and trumpets sounding out around them. Truly waltzing now. Though Kurt was still letting Blaine lead. They switched depending on their moods and today he was in the mood to just trust that Blaine could handle guiding them through the crowds while they sang in beautiful union.

“I can't see me loving nobody but you  
For all my life.  
When you're with me, baby,  
The skies will be blue for all my life.”

Always one to be theatrical, Kurt hopped up on the nearest available bench to serenade his man. Blaine countered him by putting a knee on the bench and kneeling as though he was proposing all over again.

“Me and you,  
And you and me.  
No matter how they tossed the dice,  
It had to be.  
The only one for me is you  
And you for me.”

Kurt tangled his fingers up in Blaine’s beautiful curls. The motion silenced his love. Though perhaps the way the sun dared to frame Kurt’s cheeks and create a glowing silhouette had something to do with his breath being stolen away from him. “So happy together,” Kurt sang proudly.

It was true. There was a reason he picked songs like these to sing with his man. Yes they still bickered from time to time. It was still a struggle in many ways for them to mesh their once very independent lives together even after three years. But the struggle wasn’t scary anymore. He wasn’t afraid that one day they’d wake up and not be able to remember why they got married anymore.

That was the truth of love. It wasn’t everything fitting perfectly and effortlessly together. It was deciding to take on all the work of being with someone and still wanting to wake up every morning in their arms. Or with them in his. He could have had any number of men - there were definitely plenty of phone numbers passed to him when they performed - but he didn’t want them. They weren’t the ones who were worth his efforts.

As he spun Blaine around the sidewalk during their ba-ba-ba-baa two man acapella version of the interlude, he was as sure of them as he was every day since they got married. That old honeymoon phase had long passed. It gave him confidence that they could handle kids. Of course they’d get short with each other sometimes. But they would work for their love and at the end of the day after they’d put their munchkin to bed they would embrace (usually) and fall asleep together, so happy just to be together.

Blaine’s beautiful tenor cut through his fantasies.

“Me and you,  
And you and me.  
No matter how they tossed the dice,  
It had to be.  
The only one for me is you -  
And you for me.  
So happy together.”

“So happy together,” Kurt echoed back.

“How is the weather? So happy together.”

“We’re happy together.”

“So happy together,” they sighed into each other as they finally wound down. “So happy together.” The pedestrians hurried to make themselves scarce before something else strange happened. Except for their adoring audience. Those girls clapped and cheered and wiped tears from their eyes before they had to move on about their own days. “So happy together.” Blaine laid a tender kiss on his husband.

“That was wonderfully spontaneous,” he whispered.

“I was really feeling like we needed a nice summer duet,” Kurt replied, his breath ghosting over Blaine’s cheek.

“I loved it.”

The great thing about being theater and high society famous was that they weren’t famous in a way that made day to day life impossible. As Blaine’s fingers linked through Kurt’s and pressed into the soft skin on the back of his hand they could be sure that no one would be posting their beautiful moment all over websites claiming they were stars behaving...weirdly, at best. Now there was however the possibility that they would become the next big hit video that the internet went gaga over. That could make it difficult to walk near any group of teenagers for a little while.

While being just famous in specific circles wasn’t something Rachel enjoyed about their chosen profession, it was just right for Kurt and Blaine. They could blend in or stand out when they chose to. For the most part. They, of course, couldn’t complain about the who’s-who of NYC knowing (and sometimes asking for) them by name.

Out here on the streets though they were just two married men. Who were breaking out into song. Oh well.

Just as they were about to get on their way again, Kurt caught sight of something that stopped him dead in his tracks.

The store was one they’d passed several times since it had opened a few months ago. They just hadn’t been paying much attention to it because it was, well, a baby store and they didn’t (yet) have any babies. Blaine had mentioned that it looked cute and if it survived until they had kids they would have to shop there. And that had been that. The whole conversation about it.

Their father’s day display was still up. It wasn’t the usual ‘look dad can take care of a baby too’ kind of display either. Right there, filling the window’s entire backdrop, was a full size picture of two men. One with an arm around a toddler, the other with a baby secure in the crook of his arm, and both of them holding each other with such a fondness that made Kurt believe they were a real happy family. The kind that he could have someday soon. Against his better judgement he felt his hand let go of Blaine so he could press both palms up against the glass in the same way his future child might.

“Wow” Blaine sighed over his shoulder. “That’s so beautiful.”

“Really beautiful,” he replied.

“Look! That jacket says I love my daddies.”

“I heart my daddies, but yeah.” He let himself sink back against Blaine. There were some urges deep inside begging for him to go buy it. But as time went forward things like this would no doubt become more common. There would be other jackets. But they could have the first one they ever saw in a store window. Even though it wasn’t practical just yet. Or ever, for all they knew. It was very possible that they wouldn’t have a baby until spring and then the baby would outgrow the jacket before they even got to use it. He took a deep breath and pressed back harder against Blaine to keep himself from doing something irrational in the name of baby fashion.

“You know, when we met, that would never have been possible.” Two hands wrapped around Kurt’s shoulders as Blaine massaged the muscles with his thumbs. “Maybe not even here in New York.”

“You know I’m surprised it’s even here now. People still seem to think that men can’t raise kids, not without a woman around. And I’m not sure who that’s more insulting towards.”

“That women must raise the children or that men absolutely can’t?”

“I saw a commercial the other day where the dad was staying home for the day and they were basically implying that he was useless and the wife had to come home and save him from himself. He didn’t know where the diapers were kept, he was absolutely useless in the kitchen. It’s like they’ve never even _met_ a father.”

“ _Ugh_. How are we ever going to have kids if the world thinks we’re incompetent?” A shiver ran straight up Kurt’s spine. He moved so he could wrap his arm around Blaine and hold the man tight. “We are going to be amazing fathers someday.”

“It’s becoming easier too, you know.”

“...to be a father?”

“No! To have kids. For us. Adoption processes are becoming easier, and...and there’s more options for having our own genetic kids too. I mean it’s the same basic stuff but there’s more clinics, more people interested in helping. I found a whole network online that helps men with the costs. Since, you know, most insurance doesn’t cover same-sex relationships as the cause for being infertile. Or whatever. Since we really have no way to tell how fertile either of us are when we’re just doing what we do.”

“Well, I guess we could always ask our doctor? If...that’s important to you.”

“No, I mean yes but that costs money and there’s not really much of a reason to ask about it right now anyway right? Though it would be nice to know...for the future.” He pulled away and tucked his thumbs into his pockets. It had been almost a month since he’d realized how ready he was to be a dad and he still struggled to bring it up. Things were really good for the two of them. They were happy, they were comfortable. They were practically still children.

“Right. For the future. How far in the future do you think?”

“Well...you know, it can take a while, for us. Adoption and invitro both take time. Uhm...there’s some other options too, with similar success rates to invitro. And there’s the whole process you have to go through either way. Finding a lady willing to give her baby to two men, hopefully willing to let us raise the kid without butting in all the time. Like I have no problem if she wants to be involved a bit but we’re the parents here. We’re the primary caregivers, it’s our baby. Even if the baby is half genetically not related to us, that’s not what’s most important.”

“Right. And?”

“And...that can be difficult. Just look at Quinn and Shelby. Shelby went out of her way to plant Jesse in the New Directions so she could get close to Rachel. Then she couldn’t really handle meeting her. And Quinn went absolutely crazy over Beth!”

“But she’s gotten over that.”

“Not really. She’s just doing better, especially since Shelby lets her come over a couple of times a year. I was talking to her last time she was in town and...she’s still not handling it well. She wants to have another kid, one that she gets to keep, but she’s so scared of it. Plus...well Puck still won’t marry her so there’s that problem. She’s terrified she’s going to end up alone and in a position where she can’t raise her kid. Again. But, anyway, those are just two examples of people we know who’ve had a hard time letting someone else adopt their baby.”

“Not everyone is like that you know.”

“I know, but...we’re two men. A lot of courts still have a problem with that. If the mother wanted to fight for the baby back, she probably could. I don’t know. I know adoption will be really hard.”

“And surrogacy?”

“Illegal, apparently, in New York. But there are still ways around that if we get someone we trust. Not Quinn. I love her really but no.”

“Of course. But who?”

“We know a lot of girls. Someone’s bound to be willing to help us out. But then we have to consider finding an egg somewhere, and all the costs that go along with that, then it could take multiple tries too because not every time is successful. So uh, that takes a while.”

“Oh, that’s right. We’re planning for the future still.” His voice was light, almost as though he was laughing at the idea. Blaine could see right through his husband as Kurt started to wring his hands and pace along the sidewalk’s lines.

“Right. It could take a couple of years so...if we want kids, say, when we’re...oh I don’t know, thirty?” Thirty was supposed to be a good number to have kids at, right? “Then we should probably really start the process when we’re...twenty six?”

“Twenty six huh? That’s still two years away for you.”

“...I know. I just. Its. A lot to think about. And very important, you know. I mean...We did pick our married name based on making sure that we would share a last name for the sake of children. Kids are really important.” The young man silently cheered on his dad for coming up with those words for him.

“Absolutely.” He held his hand out and Kurt readily accepted it so they could resume their walk. “So in two years, we should start the four year journey to having our first kid? Will every kid take four years do you think? That could be really annoying if we decide to have more than two. We’d be forty before the third baby even started elementary school, let alone college.”

“Well it won’t necessarily take four years. That was just...you know, a worse case scenario. Isn’t it something like 90% of people manage to have a baby within two and a half years?”

“That’s for heterosexuals who are trying to get pregnant but yes, that’s a statistic I’ve heard of. Actually I think it was my mom who told us that. I’m not sure if it’s because she forgot that two boys work differently or because she gave up on Cooper.”

“He got another new girlfriend with no signs of commitment, didn’t he?”

“Mmhm. I think he was really attached to that girl who moved to Korea. The one that’s teaching English now?”

“I think I remember her. He actually introduced us.”

“Poor Coop can’t catch a break. And Mom _really_ wants grandkids.”

“Do you think that means she’d help us acquire a couple?”

“Uhm…”

“I mean financially!”

“OH! Well. Next time she asks me when we’re going to have kids I’ll make sure to mention to her how much it costs...How much does it cost anyway?”

“Minimum of $12,000 either way, I think it is. Something in that ballpark at least.” Blaine let out a whistle.

“Can we afford that right now?”

“Well I’ve been doing some budgeting and- Who said anything about right now?!” His husband stopped him by spinning in front and settling his hands on both of Kurt’s shoulders.

“Kurt, be honest with me. Why are we talking about costs and kids today?”

“Because of the gorgeous display at that store.”

“That’s it? There’s nothing else you want to talk to me about? Just...kids, in general? With very detailed cost maps and deciding who could possibly be a surrogate for us? You just happen to know all these things about having kids just...because?”

“I’m just curious.”

“So...you’re not getting at anything with all of this?”

“No!” As soon as the words slipped out of him he saw a look on Blaine’s face that almost broke his heart. Disappointment. The way Blaine’s lips turned down in his sad, sad frown and the way his eyes lost their bright glow. “ _Yes_ ,” he corrected. “Ok? Yes Blaine. Yes. I really, really want a baby, and I want a baby _soon_.” The man started to speak but Kurt held up both of his hands and let them settle on the sides of his neck to shush him. “Before you say no, I really think we can do this. If we had someone tell us they were going to be giving us a baby, we could be ready very quickly. We’d have to give up our dance studio but we have enough money to start a family, we’re secure in our careers, we’re...we work really well together, you know, as husbands. And when we were babysitting Mr. Schue’s kids? You were wonderful Blaine. I...I want a baby. I want to have a baby with you. I want us to have kids.” How many ways were there that he could say it? “I’m just so ready for this.”

His heart was pounding in his ears as Blaine stood there silently. Hands unmoving, just watching his husband closely. He was waiting to see if there was anything else Kurt was about to say. After several moments of silence had passed between them he finally took in a deep breath to put Kurt out of his very obvious misery. That was a very big confession for Blaine to just stand there like this.

“Me too,” he said simply, just as his man started to speak again.

“And we-wait.” Kurt let the words sink in for a moment himself. He took them in and let them digest before he took hold of Blaine’s hands and held them up to his heart. “You too?”

“Me too. Lets have a baby.” The smaller man almost fell backwards when his husband pounced. Their mouths crashed together like a tidal wave on the beach. Blaine was the beach, of course. He didn’t mind. Kurt was bigger than he was but he was strong too. Plus the excitement was contagious anyway. He thought back on that sunny afternoon on Kurt’s couch in Ohio when they’d first mentioned their fatherhood dreams to each other, less than six months into their actual relationship. They both had them. Even back then. They both knew that someday they would be daddies.

Now that was a family portrait they could actually start to put together. “Kurt?”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Another kiss.

“I really love you.” The elder man let out a bubbly giggle against his cheek.

“And I really love you.” He let his lips linger against Blaine’s cheek as the scent of his husband filled his senses. They were going to be parents. Not in the theoretical someday but in the immediate as soon as possible sort of way. Kurt just couldn’t get enough of it. “We’re going to be parents.”

“We are. We really are...Where do we even start?”

“Oh I might have someone who could help us with that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the poll questions again (I'll keep reposting them until they're each revealed in the story):  
> 1\. Should the baby be boy, girl, or intersex?  
> 2\. Should Kurt or Blaine be the genetic father? (whether or not they know whose it is - which father should the baby resemble?)  
> 3\. BABY NAMES GUYS GIVE ME ALL YOUR IDEAS


	3. Now We're There and We've Only Just Begun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Will Be Our Year by the Zombies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmuswTEGF-U

“I can’t believe you won’t let me tell Sam until we talk to Rachel,” Blaine huffed as Kurt pulled him into their favorite coffee shop.

“I don’t want to get anyone worked up before we get a plan hashed out!” Kurt replied. “I’m not telling my dad yet either you know. He’s probably going to be so mad if he finds out.”

“Which is why as far as they know the only reason we told Rachel first is because we just happened to be together when...how should we put it? When you asked me to have a baby? When we decided to?”

“We’ll figure it out. Something clever I’m sure. Maybe we could convince Donovan to let us borrow the stage some morning and we can put on a performance to put on Facebook and send to everyone. They’ll like that.”

“Half of them will like it. I’m pretty sure the other half will complain that we can’t say things normally.”

“By the other half you mean the loudest half right?”

“Of course I mean Santana.”

“She’s just jealous.”

“Actually I think she honestly hates us sometimes.”

“But at her core she loves us.”

“Of course she does. She wouldn’t have shared her wedding with us if she didn’t.”

“Somehow I think she would have no matter what if Brittany just asked. Brittany really likes us. She sent me a card last March thanking me for being a good boyfriend.”

“She sent me one thanking me for being such a good husband for her best ex boyfriend ever.” Kurt couldn’t help but snort. Loudly and fairly grotesquely.

His hand slapped over his nose and mouth as though that would make the offensive sound go away. Blaine didn’t care of course. In his opinion his husband could make no disgusting sounds. There were natural human noises that didn’t bother him because, well, they were natural. They just happened to everyone every now and then. Then there were the surprise ‘gross’ noises that Kurt always tried to hide away. Like when his entire laugh tried to come out all at once and he tried to suppress it and it just came out in one gloriously hideous snort.

Blaine leaned over to peck his cheek before ordering their coffees. They didn’t even have to place the order anymore. They came in so often that there was always someone on staff who knew exactly what they wanted. Sometimes they even had them ready by the time they got to the counter. “We need to order something for Rachel too,” he informed their cashier.

“Her usual?”

“Yes.”

“Is anyone else joining you?”

“Not today, no.” A little bit of a pout formed on her lip. It was well known that she had a bit of a crush on Artie. Everyone was taking bets on when she’d give him her phone number. Blaine was the most hopeless. He said it would take mere days. That was three months ago. Now every time they came in with Artie he always said ‘today will be the day.’ Kurt had to continuously remind him that it took them months to get together. Which was why his bets were on the exact same amount of months it took Blaine to kiss him. From the moment they met to the day they got together.

“Can we get three of those little...those things?” Kurt asked, pressing his finger to the glass directly above where they had a new treat set out. It was the latest trend in coffee house snacks and it looked positively delicious. “If it’s as good as it looks it might replace cheesecake.”

“You really think there’s something in this world that can replace cheesecake?”

“...Not really no. But I do need to get a greater diversity of desserts on my favorites list.”

“That’s true. Though Cake Haven loves the challenge of making your birthday cakes.”

“Oh, Cake Haven likes the challenge hm? I seem to recall how all out you went on planning the design for them. Remember when I couldn’t look at your computer for weeks-”

“You thought I was looking at porn by myself. I remember. You got so mad.”

“...Blaine I said I was sorry for-” His words were cut short by a kiss.

“I love you.”

“ _Ugh_.”

“If you two are fighting again then I’m going to go get lunch with Jesse,” Rachel interrupted, claiming a table for three and pulling out their chairs for them.

“We’re not fighting,” Kurt informed her. “Just remembering past fights.”

“That weren’t really fights as much as rather cute misunderstandings,” Blaine added.

“Try humbling misunderstandings.”

“That too.”

“Ugh you two are too cute,” Rachel moaned as she dropped her chin into the palm of her hand. Kurt pushed her coffee and treat across the table. She just pushed it around a bit a deep, deep pout formed across her features.

“Thank you?”

“Rachel we have something we need to talk to you about,” Kurt tried to get right to the point. They wanted to get this started as soon as possible after all.

“Is it so bad that I want to be this cute with someone?”

“Excuse me?”

“Is it so bad that I want to have moments like, well like you two have. Humbling cute misunderstandings and picking out new furniture together at the flea markets and having picnics in Central Park before going home and doing dishes together. Having someone who’s going to be there for you when your throat is too sore to speak or to...to sit by your hospital bed when they don’t even know if you’re going to wake up and still be _you_.”

“What happened to Jesse?” Blaine queried, suddenly getting quite worried. “You didn’t break up did you? You two almost never fight. Not that fighting is a terrible thing you guys are just so...” It would certainly be a shock if they did split.

“You act like, well, like we did in high school,” Kurt explained. “Watching you is kind of like gorging on a full bucket of Halloween candy in one night and having to deal with that stomach ache that comes with it.”

Of course he loved looking back at their adorable history. Whenever they pulled out their old photos and remembered each of those little moments - the surprise picnics, the kisses stolen when they thought no one was looking in the halls of Dalton, and every single thing they did to show affection when they couldn’t even hold hands at McKinley - it was magical. But they had also grown past that. They’d grown up and entered a world where there was nothing stopping them from holding hands. Sure every time he felt the pressure of Blaine’s fingers between his own he fell in love all over again but it wasn’t the same. It was something he could have every day whenever he wanted it and no one could tell him to stop. Every now and then he found threats against them in the blogosphere but for the most part no one cared anymore.

While the progress the LGBT-etc community had made was absolutely amazing and wonderful and he wouldn’t give any of it up for a second, being so free had taken away some things too. Their love being so forbidden had made the moments when they could express it so much more tantalizing. And it had made all that sugar-sweetness necessary really. They had to cram all their affection into the moments when they could express it.

Yet Kurt would give them all up all over again so he could be where he was right now. Beside his husband, both of them safe and sound. There were always other ways they could bring suspense into their love. He liked the maturity of their relationship now too. They were grown up. Married. With kids on the way, hopefully. And of course they were still cute enough to make Rachel jealous. That was a plus. But they definitely weren’t cute like Rachel and Jesse were. Those two were practically licking frosting off each other’s noses every time they got a cupcake. Which they always shared. They would always be sweet on each other but their days of making people want to throw up at the sight of them were in the past.

“We _are_ ,” Rachel sighed out, making sure to draw out the ‘are’ as though it was the most tragic thing in her life.

“And this is a bad thing?” Blaine asked.

“No, I guess. But it feels so...you know, like we aren’t going anywhere. We’re cute like high school but we aren’t _in_ high school anymore. I’m going to be twenty four soon. Half of my friends are married-”

“Half of your friends got married on the same day.”

“You know what I mean! Quinn and Puck could spontaneously get married at any second, I’m pretty sure some of the kids we were mentoring are getting married soon-”

“Jane and Mason?”

“Yes! They’re going to get married before _me_!”

“Do you realize, among the students, they’ll have the first heterosexual New Directions wedding?” Kurt asked lightly. “That or maybe Marley and...which boy is she with now? Yeah definitely not Marley. _Maybe_ Kitty and Roderick could spontaneously elope. I’m really betting on those two-” His husband elbowed him to alert him to Rachel’s glare. This was clearly too big of a deal for lighthearted banter.

“Kurt. Blaine. This is a very serious problem.”

“...That there’s a heterosexual wedding?”

“Jesse and I have far more history than they do. Hell we have more history than you and Blaine!” The smaller husband stopped trying to save Kurt from his best friend. She crossed the line and he wasn’t going to hold the bite back. Rachel was going to have to fend for herself now.

“Oh yes, _history_. Like transferring to McKinley only to leave mere days before regionals and of course, of course, who can forget how romantic it was when he led the charge to throwing eggs at you. I especially liked the part where you practically begged him not to but he broke one on your head anyway. Beautiful history there Rachel. So romantic. I’m sure you can play that video for all our kids at the New Directions reunions and they’ll all say they want to marry a man who treats them like _that_.”

“There was video?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s still on YouTube. Especially that last part when he broke that egg over your head? It’s so clear that you two were meant to be.”

“And you haven’t done horrible things to each other over the years? HM?! Or do we need to talk about that! About the cheating and the breaking up for no real reason and-”

“Ok stop it!” Blaine jumped in. “We’ve all learned from the past, none of us are the same as we were even a couple of years ago, we’ve all overcome our mistakes now, and Jesse has been a pretty great guy these last two years. Since I didn’t know him during the whole egg incident I can’t compare but...he’s been really nice, and respectful, and helpful. And he really cares about you now. Just like Kurt and I care for each other, I think. Which includes messing up sometimes. But its worth it to overcome those things. Alright?” With a huff Rachel leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs at the knee. Kurt bit back commentary on how she used to behave in high school despite the eerily familiar position she was taking. It was ‘Rachel’s about to storm out’, just without the storming out.

With a sip at his coffee he returned the conversation to where it had been. “Why do you think things aren’t going anywhere?” he said instead of the scathingly angry things he wanted to send her way.

“He just doesn’t...Ok so it’s probably my fault. When we first came back to New York I told him I didn’t want anything really serious just yet because, you know, I felt bad with the whole Sam thing and I was still really having a hard time adjusting to the idea of moving on because Finn...he…”

“I know.”

“Ok, so, I made it very clear that I didn’t want to move too fast but now it’s like we’re moving too slow! I want to get married while I can still have kids. I want _kids_. I mean not for a while but, you know, someday.”

“Speaking of kids,” Blaine tried. “Someday is coming up pretty fast for some people.” Rachel completely ignored him.

“He seems really ready to move forward too. Like...oh! The other day. We saw an apartment for sale and we talked about how nice it would be if we got it together. Its that one right by Mercedes’ New York apartment, remember that? But I don’t just want to move in with him.”

“What do you want then?” Kurt replied. “Because moving in is a really big forward step you know. And then when you move in together for the last time, that’s the biggest deal.” He knew that the sooner they got through Rachel’s problems the sooner they could get to their reason for meeting.

“I want...I want to marry him ok!” She jumped out of the way as Blaine coughed up the coffee he’d been sipping at. “I know, it’s spontaneous but I really want to. Or at least, I don’t know, get engaged. Before we move in together. I want to know that this is the real deal. I want to know that I’m moving in with him because he’s _the_ one and not just because the apartment was pretty but we couldn’t afford it separately.”

“Ok _we_ could afford that apartment on half of one of our salaries, I know you can afford it.”

“That’s so sweet,” Blaine sighed out, completely skipping over his husband’s practicality. Kurt reached over to massage at his shoulder. He loved how romantic his husband could get, but of course someone had to be practical about this.

Granted he didn’t want to be practical. He sort of wanted Rachel to get married before the kids did too. It was only fair. Plus it was his chance to really go all out planning a wedding and they could guarantee that there would be doves. Actually it was probably safe to assume that doves were going to be a tradition for all New Directions weddings going forward as long as he was invited. It was weird thinking that there were going to be New Directions who didn’t know him as a close friend though. There was a whole new generation in the school again and he was just a sometimes visitor.

“You do realize that apartment is for _sale_ , not rent, and it’s probably three times as expensive as it used to be because of Mercedes.”

“Wait. You want to buy an apartment with Jesse? Are you sure that’s where your relationship is at?” he asked sensibly. He and Blaine hadn’t bought an apartment yet but that was more because they were absolutely in love with the place they were renting.

Though he wouldn’t mind talking to their landlord about what it’d cost to make it theirs forever.

“Not entirely,” Rachel confessed. “But...I...I really want to marry him. I haven’t felt this way about, well, anyone in years. Not since Finn proposed. And I knew that I wanted to marry him and then...I didn’t, and I regret that. I know not marrying him was the _smart_ thing to do but...Think about it like...if you two hadn’t gotten back together. It would be the greatest regret of your lives, right?” Both men nodded as their hands intertwined on the table. “That’s what not marrying Finn is for me. I knew that we’d get back together just like everyone knew you two would get married eventually and...then...then he wasn’t there.” She couldn’t say that he’d died. It had been four years and she still couldn’t say it. As though avoiding the words would bring him back somehow.

“Jesse isn’t going to replace Finn.”

“I know! That’s something I’ve dealt with. I don’t love Jesse as a back-up Finn, but for who he is on his own terms. And I want to be with him. And I think I’m _ready_ to be with him.” As Blaine’s hand curled tighter around his in an effort to get him to stop being cynical, Kurt surprised them all.

“Then go for it.”

“...Go for it?”

“Rachel. It took my dad eight years to be able to meet people and not look at them as a ‘replacement’ for Mom but for someone he could love for who they are as their own person. When he could love Carole like that, well that’s when he knew he was really, really ready to be with someone again. And Mom, and Finn too, they wouldn’t want us to force ourselves to be alone for the rest of our lives and never let anyone else in like that. At least, I’m pretty sure they’d want us to move on if we found someone worth loving. I...I know I would.” He glanced over to Blaine. They knew that his genetics weren’t the best. Cancer ran in both sides of the family. There was a very real possibility that Blaine would outlive him, potentially by a lot. So, naturally, this was something he at least had given a lot of thought to.

“Kurt-” Blaine tried but his husband just kissed his cheek.

“Get the most out of what you have while you’re here, and while they’re here. That’s all you can do. Live while you have life. _Trust_ me on that Rachel. I’ve lived so close to death my whole life. Mom, Dad’s heart attack, his cancer, Finn, then when I was in the hospital? And that’s just the people I’m close to. That doesn’t count when Dave tried to...or all those old relatives that I didn’t even know but had to go to their funerals anyway. Trust me on this. You...if you’re at this point, then you’re ready to move on. And that’s ok. And you and Jesse, you seem ready to at least try to take this step. Just...just like Blaine and I are ready to take our family to the next level. So we all need to go for it.”

After such a poignant speech, it was no surprise that Blaine and Rachel were both wiping tears from their eyes. Blaine scooted his chair closer so he could wrap his arms completely around the man he loved. He was definitely going to enjoy this while he had it. They were going to give their lives their all.

Their friend sniffed a little to prevent her crying from getting ugly before smoothing herself out and returning to her topic of the day.

“I have no idea how to get him to propose.”

“Why do you need to wait for him?” Despite Blaine being the super romantic husband, Kurt had his own adorable quirks. Hence the doves and constant duets whether there was a piano around for them to drape themselves over or not. He just kind of paled a little in comparison to Blaine sometimes since he wasn’t nearly so showy with his romancing. Or big, or loud.

“Because he’s supposed to propose?”

“Why?”

“Because...uhm.” Her eyes trailed between them. “Uh.”

“Because he’s the man?” She couldn’t even save herself from that one because that was exactly what she was about to say. Kurt pulled Blaine’s hand up to kiss it in apology before he let go and leaned across the table. “Tell me, does that mean Blaine’s the ‘man’ in our relationship?”

“No! It’s different with you two. You’re both guys. Someone had to propose-”

“What about when Santana proposed to Britt? Is she the man in their relationship?”

“NO! That’s...no! Someone had to say it first, for both of you. I mean there’s always the off chance that two people will magically plan to propose on the same day and just do it at the same time but that doesn’t happen very often. We all know that you would have proposed to Blaine eventually.”

“Well you are right about that. I definitely wasn’t thinking about doing it before he _graduated_ -” Kurt gave his husband a tiny playful poke. “But that was on my list of things to do after he moved to New York.”

“See? It’s different.”

“Rachel,” Blaine intervened. “You’re right. Someone has to say it first. And it’s 2017. It’s totally fine if you’re the someone who goes first.”

“Isn’t it emasculating though?” She held her hands up as soon as Kurt started to straighten his back. This was one fight she did not want to get into with him, especially because she remembered when her dads got married in the mid 2000s in Canada. Despite the show tunes it had very much been a man sort of wedding. “Not for _you_ guys, but for a straight guy. It’s supposed to be his job to propose. Won’t people make fun of him? He’s a really big up and coming director; if people found out I proposed then they could really rip into him.”

“If he can’t handle a few bullies then maybe he’s not the best match for you,” Kurt grumbled. “At least not yet. Remember when people used to make fun of Finn just for being my friend? And remember when...uhm, well, one time they were going to beat me up, Gaga week? When he dressed-”

“In that red costume.”

“To prove to everyone that they didn’t matter. What mattered was that he knew we were friends, he knew who he was, and he knew whose opinions did matter. The opinions of the people who loved him.”

“I thought we agreed that Jesse isn’t Finn.”

“He’s not. That’s just an example. I could use Puck too. When he stopped throwing me in dumpsters and started watching my back? I know people laughed at him too. Behind his back. Because, well, we all know no one laughs at Puck to his face. Rachel, you deserve someone who isn’t going to be ashamed of something like being proposed to. After everything we’ve been through, we’re bigger than letting a few haters get to us. You know, I could have gotten upset by how people reacted to Blaine’s proposal - you remember some of the guys at NYADA laughing about it-”

“People laughed?” Blaine started.

“It didn’t matter. I’m still a man. I don’t need their approval to be a man. Neither does Jesse.”

“I’d still feel a lot better if you guys hinted at it or something,” Rachel pleaded.

“After you were so nice about our engagement just now?”

“Kurt! You know I didn’t mean-”

“We’re not doing it.”

“Maybe we should help her,” Blaine interjected.

“I want to be a bride’s man as much as you but we can’t do this. Rachel if you think you’re ready to marry him then you need to talk about it with him. If you don’t want to propose, fine, but at least be the one to talk to him about it. Marriage is a very, very big deal. Believe me. You don’t want someone else nudging him. I mean, you can talk to other people about it that’s fine but if you want to marry him you have to be the one to bring it up. If you can’t do that then, well...you really aren’t ready.”

“I’m ready,” Rachel jumped. “I just don’t want to mess this up.” Kurt reached over and squeezed her hands.

“Blaine?”

“Hm?” he let out.

“You’re the one person here who actually initiated the path to marriage with to someone. Do you have any advice?”

“Oh! Uhm. Well. It’s terrifying.” Rachel’s nails dug into Kurt’s hands.

“You’re not helping.”

“It’s true though. I was _petrified_ that I was going to scare you off but I knew deep inside that I had to marry you. I always knew that. I love you.” Without letting go of Rachel, Kurt leaned over to kiss his husband. Their friend let out another little sigh at the affections.

“I’m so happy that we’re together,” Kurt all but purred against his lips. Rachel gave his hands a yank. Both men let out sighs of their own to express their disapproval. The actress merely gave them her infamous pout that signaled it was time for her to be the center of their attention again.

“You know for saying its a big deal you two sure got married on the fly,” she grumbled.

“...Well we were talking about our future together for four years before we got married. We kind of started out knowing where things were going. That helps.”

“I remember the plan. Married by _thirty_ with a future with two kids. What were their names?”

“Hepburn and Tracy. Or did you mean little Feta?”

“Little what?”

“The celebrity baby name.”

“Ohhh right. Fettuccini Alfredo. I think Alf is a better nickname than Feta but whatever.”

“As fun as those names are I don’t think I like any of those names anymore, not for our actual baby.” Kurt glanced over to his husband with the hope that he felt the same way. They hadn’t talked about baby names in a while. Not unless they came across something interesting and then it was just a ‘that’s an interesting name.’ Never a ‘we need to write that down and remember it because that is our new baby name.’

“I still kind of like Hepburn,” Blaine murmured.

“And not Tracy?”

“Mmm yeah, I think I’m pretty much over Tracy. I mean, Tracy Anderson just kind of steals all the attention away from anyone whose name is well, very similar.”

“We’ll have to start looking into names again won’t we?”

“And actually get serious about some of them.”

“Should we make lists?”

“We definitely need to start making lists. Don’t want to be ill-prepared. Do you think we’ll get to pick the name though?”

“Depends on how we get our baby.”

“Look at you, you’re even planning your baby names,” Rachel groaned again not quite catching on to what they were hinting at. “I know Jesse wants kids. He loves the idea of putting our very talented genes together to make a super star that’s even better than me. Seriously our child would be absolute perfection. Not to mention they’d have two amazing god-daddies too. See all the things you can look forward too if you help me get engaged?”

“Rachel,” Kurt jumped in. “We’re not going to talk to him about this for you.”

“Yeah I know. It didn’t hurt to try.”

“Look, I get it, it’s hard. It’s really hard to go against societal norms. Especially when your entire life isn’t built around breaking them. I know you have two dads but you yourself aren’t really that unconventional. Just a bit loud and there is no ‘stop’ button when you’re talking. It’s going to be tough, yes, but Rachel, I promise. If you want to get married then it will mean so much more and be so much more real for him if it comes from you. And yes it’s scary and yes, you might wind up not being completely ready, who is? It’s just like...like having a baby. You can feel like you’re ready but you might not be and that’s ok.”

“Kurt are you having sec-” Blaine started to interrupt, but Kurt didn’t let up.

“If you feel like its time, then maybe it is time to at least start looking into it. Maybe it is time to get serious and get engaged. Or start looking at your options for having kids. Get your name out there on the lists and see if there’s any mothers who would like to pick you or any surrogates willing to carry your kid for you. It won’t happen overnight. It’s just getting started. And then when you’re there with your new baby-”

“Kurt what are you talking about,” Rachel cut him off successfully. “I really don’t see how having a baby and getting engaged are the same thing.”

“They are though! They’re so much alike. Scary because you can never really be absolutely sure that you’re ready and so what if we’re a bit young, we’ve overcome a lot for our young ages and we got married young and look at us now. We can do this.”

“You’re not talking about me anymore are you?”

“No,” Blaine clarified. “He’s not.” Her face lit up with recognition as she started to put all the pieces together.

“Ok, please say it so I don’t look like an idiot. What are you talking about.”

“Rachel. Kurt and I have decided that its time for us to have a baby.”

Slowly she reached out her hands to cup them over her friends’ hands on the table. Her thumbs slowly brushed over their knuckles as she processed it. “Not that I want to be a nay-sayer but...Are you _sure_?”

“Yes.” The smaller man didn’t even hesitate. He was always so sure of everything between the two of them. In the other chair, Kurt had made his entire dessert disappear before she even finished her sentence. Her opinion was vital to him.

“Blaine I don’t doubt that you would be great fathers, really, you’re amazing and any kid would be lucky to call you Dad. Or Papa, or whatever you choose. But...you just graduated last year. Kurt you’re just two years out. Trust me, I want you to have kids but are you sure that this is the best time?”

“You were just talking about Jesse wanting kids, and you wanting kids with him.”

“Yeah. _After_ I’ve won my first Tony and I can guarantee that kid has a very secure college savings fund. Our careers are just taking off and I know June has you guys very set and you’re shoo-ins for the leads in that new play at the Lincoln Center but...Are you sure you can handle a baby right now?”

“Well it won’t be right away Rachel, we have to go through the whole process, fill out all the forms, find a mother who either picks us for adoption or is willing to be our no-strings-attached surrogate-”

“No strings attached? Blaine. Please don’t do that. I know from personal experience that the child is going to get curious. They’re going to want to know something if not who their genetic mother was then at least who carried them. And if you adopt they’ll want to know everything they can about the people who gave them up! It’s not that they don’t love you it’s just...a curiosity. They won’t want to replace you but they will want to know everything they can about where they came from. I know I did. And when I was babysitting Beth last month she was asking all kinds of questions about where her daddy was, who her daddy was, why she didn’t look like Shelby, and she’s so confused about the whole mom versus birth mother thing. We just want to know.”

“Well, for one we don’t want to have any incidences like Shelby had with Quinn. In our case, courts would probably take our kid away really fast if the mother found a judge that was even the least bit conservative. We can’t take that kind of risk. And we love Quinn but...teenagers can be a bit...well, I mean, we were all teenagers once we know how we were. Kids these days aren’t that much different.”

“But you can’t expect to just cut the mother out entirely. Make sure it’s someone that you can work out a deal with, let them visit for birthdays or something. Even if she doesn’t want to know what’s going on or be attached to the child, let her know that she can always ask how things are going. You don’t want your baby go have to go behind your backs to learn about where she came from. I mean. Where the baby...Well you know what I mean. I love my dads. So so so much. But there’s some things that kids just want to know.”

“This is why we came to you first,” Kurt said with his softest voice as he reached his fork over to prod at Blaine’s dessert. His husband willingly relinquished the treat in the name of love.

“...Wait. You haven’t told anyone else?”

“No. Well, Dad kind of encouraged me to talk to Blaine because he knows how badly I want kids-”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Blaine whispered. Kurt just patted his shoulder as a promise to explain later.

“But I haven’t told him that we decided it was time yet. You’re the first one. Because we really want your help with this. We want to do everything right...I want to be as good a father as mine is. And, well the only people we know who’ve had experience with this is you, your dads, Shelby, and Beth. And of those you’re the only one we’re actually close to and can have a real but comfortable conversation with about this.”

“Not to mention Beth is still too young to really be very helpful and I can’t remember the last time your dads visited and had a normal conversation.”

“No usually they’re too busy ‘accidentally’ visiting on the same day then spending the entire time avoiding each other,” Rachel grumbled. “What about Quinn though? She had to give up Beth. I really think you can talk to her about this too.”

“She’s on our list to talk to...eventually.”

“Guys-”

“I know!” Kurt sighed. “I just...We love her, we do. But I know she’s still hurting from having to give up Beth. She’ll always be struggling with that. That’s why she’s not on our list of people to ask to be surrogates.”

“She’s going to be really upset when she finds that out.”

“We talked about it years ago. When she was willing to donate her eggs to us. She might still be, but that’s something else we’ll have to think about a lot harder before we make our final decision. It can be really costly to take someone’s eggs and put them in another person and we know she can’t be our surrogate. Since we’ll also have to pay all the medical bills for whoever actually carries the baby.”

“...That is a lot isn’t it.” Rachel fell quiet for a minute. Just long enough to have the men squirming in their seats. Then she smiled at them. “Ok, I’ve decided. I’m going to help you out.”

“Wait I thought you were against this.”

“I’m against the idea of cutting the birth mom out of the baby’s life. Otherwise, if you think its time for a baby then I’m certainly not going to tell you no.” A little squeal escaped from her. “My best friends are going to be daddies! How can I not be excited about that? Am I allowed to tell anyone?”

“We’d kind of like to spread the news ourselves,” Blaine told her.

“Ok, ok, I understand...I can tell Jesse though right? Hm I wonder if that’ll give him any ideas…”

“Unless you intend for him to get ideas about babies-”

“Well I told him no babies before I’m married. So if he wants kids then he’s going to have to put a ring on it. Do you think it’ll be enough?”

“No you definitely need to talk to him about what you actually want with him right now,” Kurt replied. Rachel let out a growling sigh.

“Ok, fine. I’ll talk to him...should I talk to him before or after I tell him you guys are...having a baby or adopting a baby or...acquiring a baby?”

“Please don’t put it like that,” Blaine begged. “That makes it sound like we’re going to go steal someone’s child. And of course depending on who you ask that’s exactly what we’re doing. So don’t feed them things to taunt us with ok?”

“Ok then what _am_ I supposed to say? Are you going with surrogacy?”

“We’re not sure yet. We uhm, we were thinking about talking to some adoption agencies about that option, and...we have no idea how to even begin with the surrogate thing. I guess find someone willing to carry our baby? Er, or should that be a later step.”

“Well, first you need to find out about the laws. Like, in Ohio, my dads had to sort of adopt me anyway, and even then it was just one of my dads for the longest time, until they got married. And Shelby had to sign away all her rights of course. It was like a closed adoption. Which was made easier because one of my dads was the genetic father. Relative adoptions are easier, I think. At least it worked for them. But then they always had a lot of money so...I guess...they could have done anything. How much do you have?”

“...Uhm, well, after figuring out everything, and if we make some sacrifices on having the latest fashion trends and cut back on the hair gel a bit-” The last part made Blaine grimace a bit.

“We can put aside a pretty good amount, I think,” Kurt clarified, if only vaguely. “Especially if we both get this show at the Lincoln Center. I mean we can’t pay out countless times but if we get the right match, we can do this. And spoil our kid like your dads spoiled you. Because we’re going to give our kids more than we had. I know, it’s going to be hard. My Dad was amazing at raising me. We have a really high bar to reach. But that’s every parent’s dream, isn’t it? To give their kid more than they had?” He felt Blaine’s arm curling around his waist.

“You’re going to be amazing,” Rachel said. “And I’m going to help you in any way that I can. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“If you could be the surrogate that’d be amazing.”

“Uhm, I really appreciate you asking but, sorry...no.”

“Hey, it didn’t hurt to try, right?” All three had a good laugh until Rachel started tearing up again. “Oh hey, hey, what’s wrong!”

“I’m just so happy. You’re going to be parents!”

“Ok come here,” Blaine demanded. “Come and hug it out.”

Drawing attention was the last of their concerns. The patrons of the coffee house glanced up as they formed a love huddle but otherwise went on with their days. That was one of the reasons they came here almost every day.

“I almost don’t want to go to rehearsal today,” she confessed. “I’d rather just stay here and talk babies with you guys.” Almost immediately Rachel stepped back as her phone alerted her to the time. “Of course I’d never actually miss rehearsal.”

“Of course not.”

“So. I have to go. But before I do, promise me that I’m going to be the god-mommy.”

“Absolutely,” Kurt agreed. “Though ahh, is it ok if Sam’s the god-daddy? Since we’re a lot closer with him than Jesse. Plus if anything happened to us then our kid would go to McKinley and, well, I never thought I’d be saying this but I rather like that option.”

“Ok we’re definitely going to talk about that little snafu later. I have to go, I’ll call you when I’m out. Keep me updated with everything as you go through this I want to help you out in any way I can.”

“And you keep us updated with this engagement stuff,” Blaine demanded.

“Don’t worry you’ll be the first bride’s anythings I tell, I swear. See you!” With that, Rachel Berry left the building.

“Do you think she’s going to talk to him?”

“Mmm, knowing Rachel...Yes. I’m more interested to see if she makes him take her last name or if they do what we did. Because I’m pretty sure there is no way she’s going to take his. Berry St. James does stand out though don’t you think?”

“I’m pretty partial to Anderson-Hummel myself.”

The empty dessert plates were stacked neatly at the center of the table before the two men stood to leave the cafe. Blaine didn’t hesitate to take hold of his husband’s hand though he did linger for a moment.

“Is something wrong?” Kurt asked.

“No, nothing. It’s just...now that we’ve told Rachel, there’s no going back is there? We’re really going to do this.”

“Did you...not want to?”

“No. I mean yes? I mean, I do.” Carefully Blaine wrapped an arm around his man to pull him close for a kiss. A passionate but chaste kiss. “It just seems so surreal. This is actually happening.”

“It really is. We’re really doing this.”

“When are we going to start telling people?”

“Uhm, well I’d prefer to tell them in person so...how about at the alumni festival in September?”

“Ah yes, the alumni festival. When we get to go back and let all the new students marvel at how amazing we are and be complete rockstars for a few days.” As the two headed out into the summer afternoon he glanced over Kurt’s left hand. The ring was so perfect. How Sue Sylvester had gotten their sizes right he didn’t want to know. Though he had some suspicions that she’d wrestled at least Kurt’s size out of Sam during that whole hypnosis fiasco. Since Sam had helped him get that engagement ring. “Did people really laugh?”

“Did who laugh at what?”

“When I proposed. Did people really laugh at you?”

“Uhm, well. Ok so yes a few people thought it was amusing I guess. They didn’t mean any harm though. They just thought it was cute, some people made some comments about how I’m the more effeminate man and...it was a bit upsetting, sure, but they didn’t bother me. A lot of the ones that talked like that will never know what it’s like to be in my place. Even the not straight guys, really. Any of them saying they refuse to be proposed to are really missing out. Though sometimes I do wish I could go back and give you something in return. I mean, I knew what you were doing. If I wasn’t so scared I’d say no I would have bought a ring too.”

“You thought you’d say no!”

“ _Blaine_ you were in high school! I’m happy with how things turned out but back then, I was terrified.”

“Are you still scared?”

“No. If I was I wouldn’t want to have a baby with you now would I?”

“I suppose not. We couldn’t very well expect to beat out Burt Hummel as best dad ever if we weren’t extremely secure with each other.”

“Exactly.”

A yellow warbler passed over their heads, twittering its song. Kurt felt a grin forming on his face whether he wanted to or not. He could feel another song coming on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing Poll:  
> 1\. Should the baby be boy, girl, or intersex?  
> 2\. Should Kurt or Blaine be the genetic father? (whether or not they know whose it is - which father should the baby resemble?)  
> 3\. BABY NAMES GUYS GIVE ME ALL YOUR IDEAS


	4. The Movie Never Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t Stop Believing (Journey, performed in multiple renditions by Glee Cast)  
> Season 1 Pilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FaJshIWdpU  
> Season 1 Finale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSfJW90YaG4  
> Season 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PWgZJkVmyk  
> Season 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trH2iiOxjRg

Burt didn’t mind driving his son and son-in-law around when they were in Lima. Kurt had sold his car when he was 18 and, well, never looked back. He hadn’t really needed to. NYC was built in such a way that made cars, well, more of a hassle most of the time. Plus it seemed that where the boys lived didn’t have any parking anyway. Which meant he just needed wheels when he was in his smaller and more sidewalk disadvantaged Ohio hometown. What he did mind was the goofy grins and complete silence as they held hands in the backseat. They were acting like teenagers. It was just weird.

“So,” he tried. “A whole week back in high school? Sounds fun.”

“We’re honored guests,” Kurt informed him. “I think we’re even supposed to teach a class or two this week.”

“I think we’re also supposed to take a day or two with the New Directions,” Blaine mused.

“Or do we get to mentor them more individually? I know Mercedes and Santana are working with the TroubleTones...Wait does that mean Puck is working with the boys? Since we’re supposed to work with the New Directions.”

“Yup, Puck and Artie.”

“Oh that sounds like something I have to see.”

“Ok, ok guys,” Burt interjected. He pulled into the somewhat redesigned McKinley parking lot. There were a lot more kids in this district than there used to be. And all of them wanted to go to McKinley. He chuckled a little as he drove up to the front door. “I feel almost like I should give you another speech like I did your first day of high school.”

“Can we please not repeat that, please.”

“Fiiine. But promise me that you’ll embarrass your kids just as bad.”

“Oh you don’t have to worry about that. We’ll probably both be there fussing over each of them before they go through those doors.” He caught his father’s gaze through the rearview mirror. “But before we start talking about a ‘them’ we should probably focus on the first one, huh?”

“That sounds like a plan. Any time table you’re looking at?” The two men squeezed each other’s hands.

“As soon as possible.”

“...Now Kurt.”

“Dad?” A pit rolled up in his stomach for a moment. Burt had been the one to encourage him to talk to Blaine. That wasn’t a kind of thing he could take back and start going on about all the reasons he shouldn’t. Kurt felt himself tensing up. Blaine must have felt it too because he pulled his husband’s hand closer to his body. Then Burt dropped what he had to say.

“You realize I’m _really_ going to have to embarrass you now, right?”

“...what?”

“You can’t just tell me that and not expect me to get out of this car and hug you. So come on. Out. We’re hugging.”

“Dad you don’t-”

“ _Now_. You’re the one who decided to wait until we were in front of your old high school to tell me that. So you’re going to have to deal with the consequences.”

Look at them, it was hard to believe that seven years ago Burt had found his son in the auditorium giving a big middle finger (in the form of some song from some musicals about gypsies or something) to their entire relationship. They’d been fractured but love had seen them through.

Now there was, as soon as possible, going to be a third generation (Anderson-)Hummel to bring up and, well, this time Burt wasn’t going to make the same mistakes. And he was going to help his sons from doing the same. He knew Kurt was a lot like him with a penchant to bottle things up and hide them. Someday he’d have a teenager who, by definition of their age, probably did that exact same thing. Luckily for Kurt and Blaine they had a seasoned old grandpa to be who’d dealt with all of that before.

When Blaine tried to hover near the hug, the two Hummels pulled him in. He loved it, of course. Where his own father was absent he had a husband and father-in-law who accepted him into their family with wide open arms.

“It could be a while,” Kurt whispered.

“That’s ok. Everyone has to go through some kind of process for getting a baby one way or another. Kids don’t just show up and drop onto your laps. I’m here to help you any way I can. In the mean time you two go enjoy being honored guests or whatever this is. I have to go get all your old baby stuff out and go through it.” Burt let his boys go and crawled back into his car. He had to drive away before his emotions caught up with him.

“Right now?” he heard his son call after him.

“You’ll understand in twenty years.”

His little baby was trying to have a baby. No one would fault him, of course, for crying a little, but he still didn’t want anyone to see it. Except maybe Carole. They could curl up together and talk about how old they were now.

As for the Anderson-Hummel duo, Blaine tried to hold his husband’s hand but Kurt hooked their arms together instead. It may very well have been that the school and the whole world was more friendly towards their marriage than it was when he walked these halls five years ago but the instinct to keep it subtle hadn’t abated. Besides, it was just more professional. Spouses holding hands at something like this could look childish. They had to wow the children with their adult-ness today.

“There you two are!” Mr. Schue greeted them. “Everyone is late today. “

“It’s not even 9:30 yet,” Blaine said.

“Nine….I thought i had them put 8:30 down.”

“No it said nine,” Kurt echoed his husband. “By what we got, we’re early.”

“That...explains a lot. Ok, anyway, classes have been redesigned this week so you guys can all spend time with everyone as needed anyway, and Sam has the New Directions for another thirty minutes anyway-”

“You can do that?”

“As long as the kids are passing their tests, and they are, then yes. They’re technically learning everything they need for those graduation exams so I don’t see why we can’t take a week to focus on the performing side of this performing arts high school. Especially since it’s early enough in the year.”

“Ah the glories of being able to call all the shots.”

“It is nice. Go on, hurry, they’re waiting in the choir room. I’m going to try to get in touch with everyone else.” The two practically ran unabashedly down the halls. No one could tell them no. This was Mr. Schue’s first annual alumni week (with the yearly March career information fair being so successful he’d had to expand things a bit but didn’t want to repeat the activities) so everyone was figuring out what to do with it. And Kurt and Blaine had several ideas for what they wanted to try out with these kids. Like unusual duets or small group numbers since the idea still seemed to be that only people in love sang together. At least it was more evolved from ‘just men and women.’ Kurt couldn’t wait to repeat his Victor Victoria act. Blaine had stayed up all night a few weeks back helping him make it even better than it had been before.

Their dreams went out the window fast. The twenty students who had been selected for the New Directions this year were deep in a performance of the latest top pop song of 2017 - girls were dancing with girls, boys with boys, and at the front was someone who was completely unidentifiable owning on the solo.

“I think that’s Courtney,” Blaine whispered. “Sam told me about them. Apparently Courtney is a chosen name and they ran into some issues registering hi...her? Them. Them. They had some issues but it’s all clear now.”

“It’s so nice to see people being themselves openly and proudly,” Kurt sighed back to him. “And to see the school supporting them? It’s a dream come true.” Sam caught sight of his friends and stopped in the middle of directing the kids to pounce on them. The kids didn’t stop. They finished their performance with a passion and flair that could win them another National’s trophy. The Anderson-Hummel men were more than happy to give them a loud standing ovation - and not just because there wasn’t anywhere for them to sit. “That was amazing you guys!”

He expected smiles, thank yous perhaps. He didn’t expect the familiar dark chuckles that he hadn’t heard since the football team had replaced his boxers with some women’s lacy underwear. Bra included. (Finn had rescued him - in secret, but then again that was a time when Finn had still been getting up the confidence to be the hero that he became.)

“Uhm, everyone have a seat,” Sam said. “This is Kurt and Blaine. I know you’ve heard a lot of stories about these guys, they’re legends here at McKinley and now they’ve taken a whole week out of their performance schedules to come here and pass on their knowledge. They’re also my _best friends_. My junior and senior year I was even allowed to live with the Hummels - that’s Kurt’s family - because I wanted to stay at McKinley but my family had moved to another state. These guys are absolutely amazing and I expect you to try your hardest to learn absolutely everything you can from them this week. Understand? Now, who has any questions.”

It was Courtney that raised their hand. Kurt more than eagerly pointed to allow them their chance to speak.

“What’s the best flavor from the slushie machine?” The other kids broke out into giggles.

“The...best flavor?” Kurt echoed unsuspectingly.

“Yeah,” a boy laughed. “Since, you know, you’ve tasted them all.” The laughter only grew.

“I actually haven’t, I didn’t waste my money on those and only had a couple when someone else got them for me. Usually grape. So I guess that’s the best flavor?”

“Oh, not cherry?” one of the girls practically squealed. “Since that’s the one you were always wearing!”

“CLASS!” Sam barked, jumping forward before Blaine had a chance to. He knew how protective the men were of each other. His friend, however, hadn’t quite figured out what was going on. Kurt had.

“What it’s _true_ , we’ve all seen it.”

“How many times have I told you-things were different in 2010. The glee club wasn’t popular and-”

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe that was because they weren’t any good? I mean, Mr. Evans, really! You always tell us about how they’d always perform in the courtyard or the cafeteria and people would set their things on fire or throw food at them. I don’t know about you but that’s a clear sign that they sucked.”

“Wait,” Blaine said. “ _Wait_. You can’t honestly tell me that you guys are this full of yourselves.”

“Blaine-” Kurt whispered, reaching for his husband as the man stepped towards the kids.

“When the New Directions started they had to fight not just against the other students calling them uncool or going after them for doing something they thought was gay because clearly gay was the worst possible thing you could be, right? Obviously. But it didn’t stop there. They also had to deal with teachers trying to constantly destroy them, Will - Mr... _Principal_ Schuester was constantly being undermined at every turn. The school administration wanted to completely defund everything. You’re honestly telling me that you think we weren’t good because they-we had to overcome all that just to win the New Directions first nationals trophy? That was barely five years ago!”

“Oh please,” another student drawled. “Every kid loves a good performance. If the performances were good you would have been popular in an instant.”

“You. You’re absolutely spoiled! I’ll tell you what - me, and Kurt, and Rachel - we’re all successful performers. That song you were just singing? Was from someone Mercedes helped break into the biz because she has that much power that she can do that. Every single one of us is doing far better than _any_ of you will do with that attitude. You know what? You guys aren’t worth our time.”

With that, Blaine stormed out. Kurt felt his skin prickling. He had never seen Blaine like that. His own mouth was, for once, sealed shut. It was like seeing the Warblers go corrupt only this wasn’t because of bad leadership. Sam had a pure heart. The worst thing he’d probably be capable of would be encouraging them to be too sexy for their age group. With complete innocence, of course. “Uh, uhm, Kurt you’re in charge, and you guys - if any of you give him any trouble remember I’m not afraid to kick you out even if it means dropping below the required number! You aren’t the only glee club in this school.”

“Oh yeah, how can we forget the Terrible Tones and the Duly _Warblers_ ,” someone scoffed. Sam missed it. He’d already taken off after his best friend. Kurt, however, caught how everyone giggled at the Warbler name. He almost started fighting before he realized if they weren’t impressed with how hard the old New Directions had worked then they definitely wouldn’t have anything nice to say about an acapella boy’s club that hadn’t even won a Nationals trophy of any sort in well over a decade before the school was burned down.

Kurt felt his chest puffing up defensively as he stepped forward. He could handle a bunch of teens.

As for Sam, he tracked Blaine down in what used to be the locker rooms. Now they were changing rooms for all the performances that went on. The purpose was similar but the room was structured completely differently. There wasn’t any punching bags anymore, unfortunately. “If you need something to punch, then uh...I actually don’t know what to tell you.”

“As much as I’d love to, I probably shouldn’t,” Blaine sighed. He let himself slide down into a soft chair. “It’s not an appropriate way to take out my anger about this.”

“Now is that you talking or Kurt talking…”

“Kurt doesn’t mind that I box.”

“But he is kinda a pacifist and punching a bag is like one step away from someone’s face-”

“He knows better. I just...they’re kids Sam. I shouldn’t feel like punching things. Over this. How did this happen anyway? They’re _awful_.” His friend slowly settled down beside him.

“They’re not totally terrible. Uhm, Amelia, the trans girl, she has a hard time with her parents because of their church. She’s living with her aunt now, her parents think she’s a boy and, well its bad. But they look out for her.”

“...that doesn’t excuse them from being awful to other people. For all we know, those guys that put Kurt in the hospital a few years ago were amazing brothers, or fathers. That doesn’t make them any less attempted murderers. Their supposed to be our legacy Sam. They’re supposed to be the best of the best, but more than that, they’re supposed to...to do us proud. You know, be the kind of people that the other kids can look up to. They were making fun of us!”

“...It all started last winter. After sectionals, a couple of kids quit, said they didn’t like the pressure of performing. I tried talking to them but they said they just wanted to have fun. So we helped them put together a talent show for the kids who aren’t in one of the glee clubs. They did great by the way. But...one of them backed out of that too. Then transferred. That’s when I realized something was up. These kids...the ones that are here, they’re picking and choosing who gets into the junior varsity glee club and who gets to come up into the New Directions. But I don’t have _proof_. And no one’s speaking up about it.”

“Then how do you know?”

“Well...ok so I don’t know for sure, but it’s like...like how we knew that the Warblers were cheating, but we didn’t have proof yet. The pieces are there. We just need someone to speak up or to catch someone out of line. They walk around this school like they own it. And yeah, they’re amazing. _Amazing_. Blaine, seriously, these kids if they get their acts together, they’re going to be stars.”

Blaine ran his fingers through his half-gelled hair. This was just like what happened to the Warblers. Corruption. They were morphing into Vocal Adrenaline. And from the sounds of it these kids were proud of that.

“You can’t let them keep acting like this.”

“I know but...I don’t want to just kick them all out. They earned their spots. Well, I think they did. There’s a lot of kids that didn’t try out this year that I thought would. And I don’t know why, at least not for sure.”

“UGH I swear if my kids ever act like this! Those kids need a wake up call. Maybe...some kind of history lesson? And not the lesson about how much you guys were always bullied those first two years. Apparently that’s hilarious.”

The bell rang. Sam didn’t even budge though Blaine darted up on instinct. “I need help. I have no idea what to do anymore.”

“Well, this is the perfect week for that,” Kurt’s beautiful sing-song voice cut through the sound of students outside as he slipped into the changing room. “How did I know I’d find you in here?” He held his arm out for Blaine to hug him before offering his other hand to their friend.

“How did it go after we left?”

“I talked to them about producers and getting and keeping jobs and how if they piss off the wrong person then they’ll literally never work in their field again. I think they took it pretty seriously. But one of them did ask if I was having a hard time getting jobs. Since being in all kinds of revolutionary productions and being a singer for high society well-to-do charity balls isn’t a feasible definition of success. They have their sights set as high as Rachel. But they aren’t all going to win Tonys. It’d be nice if the Tony awards could become the McKinley High graduates awards but we all know there’s millions of talented kids out there and all of these guys are just as easily replaced with any of them. These kids need to be humbled before they ruin their futures. So! I propose we send out an SOS to everyone and meet up and come up with a plan. The sooner the better since we have less than five days to do this.”

“Sounds like plenty of time for a lesson,” Blaine told him.

“Lets get to it then!” Sam cheered, running off ahead of them.

“Did you tell him yet?” Kurt whispered.

“Uhm, I hinted at it, I think, but I don’t think he picked up on it.”

“Ok.” He pecked his husband’s cheek. “I can’t wait to tell everyone. We’ll have to be careful though. Rachel has a penchant for gossip that’s worse than mine.”

“Quite a feat!”

“I know.”

\--- --- --- --- ---

“Its like they worship us _and_ the ground we walk on!” Santana declared over lunch in the auditorium. “I’m pretty sure more than a couple of the girls were upset when I said we were married.”

“The boys couldn’t wait for us to lay down some rock and roll on them,” Puck joked.

“It’s amazing how excited everyone is,” Artie added.

“Which really makes you wonder what the emergency was,” Quinn mused. She and Tina had been working with an acting class as opposed to the musical groups. They would all get their turns throughout the day - and the days to come.

“I bet it has something to do with the baby,” Rachel said with a giggle. Then she looked to the rest of their friends.

“What baby.”

“The...they didn’t tell you yet?”

“Did Sam knock someone up?” Tina gasped. “I thought he was always like super safe.”

“...Not Sam.”

“Rachel we’ve already well confirmed that Lady Hummel isn’t a lady,” Santana sighed. “And there’s no way his other half is either. His voice is too deep.”

“Well they don’t have a mother yet but, they’re working on it. At least they told me they were. I thought they’d asked you guys. They’re looking for a surrogate.”

“Wait they’re _what_ ,” Quinn snapped, jumping to her feet. “Oh no no no. They are way too young for that.”

“Who are too young for what?” Sam asked as he strolled in.

“Blaine and Kurt are trying to find a surrogate! They’re trying to have a baby!”

“Quinn, it’s their choice when they’re ready to be parents,” Rachel argued. “And they think-”

“They thought getting engaged when half of them was still in high school was a good idea and look how well that turned out.”

“They got married didn’t they?”

“It took them forever and it almost destroyed them in the process. That’s fine when its just the two of them but they can’t just break up with a baby. Once that baby is on its way to being theirs, they can’t just back out, and _then_ decide at the last minute they still want it!”

“Oh come _on_ guys. Someone back me up here!”

“I’m with Quinn on this,” Puck said. “And not just because she’s my girl. People shouldn’t have babies before they’re like, thirty if they can help it.”

“Ditto,” Artie echoed.

“Just because we aren’t ready to be parents doesn’t mean they aren’t,” Rachel proclaimed. “They really want this, and it’s going to take a couple of years for them to get it anyway so if they want to have babies by the time they’re thirty they have to start really early and get their names on the lists with adoption agencies or surrogacy...whatever those are called. It’s not like they can just go knock someone up. Unless any of us volunteer then it’s easier they don’t have to go through the process of getting to know someone. I mean I can’t but maybe one of you girls can, or one of the other girls that joined right after we graduated. But even then they still have to find eggs, unless...any of us donate for them.”

“Carrying a child, even if its not genetically yours, is a really big deal,” Quinn hissed. “Trust me. I would know. And I’m the _only_ person here who does. Even when you detach yourself and know that that baby is going to another family there is something about giving birth that tears you up. And then you can’t keep her. And even if it’s just your eggs in someone else’s body - that’s a really big deal too! That’s someone else carrying, giving birth to, and raising what could have been _your baby_. Do they have any idea what this could mean for the moms?”

“So, what, do you want them to never have kids?”

“No! That’s not. UGH! They don’t know enough. They’re not ready to have babies.” Rachel caught the girls nodding as well. Except for Brittany. Sweet forever innocent Brittany.

“Babies are really squishy,” she said. “And they kind of remind me of Kurt. Not now but in high school. Sometimes when he smiles he looks like a big squishy baby.”

“That’s no reason for him to be having a baby,” Santana whispered to her beloved wife. “We’re more ready than they are.”

“Are we having a baby? I didn’t knock you up did I?”

“No Britt, you didn’t knock me up.”

“Did-”

“I didn’t knock you up either.”

“Why does Britt think she’s knocked up?” Kurt cut through. “Rachel, what did you tell them.”

“Uhm, well, I might have-” she started, but Quinn cut her off, stomping over to the boys and putting herself right up in their space.

“You two are so selfish! You’re way too young to have kids! But if you must insist on this then just _promise_ me you won’t hurt any mothers in the process.” That was all she said to them before leaving out the back. She pushed right past Mercedes without a glance. Their diva friend stepped out onto the stage to survey the damage. It was her first time back to Lima in three years and while she had been expecting to make a big entrance at lunch into the loving arms of all her friends she knew better than to hold to that when it seemed she’d stepped into the middle of a scandal.

“Does this have anything to do with the emergency Kurt texted me about?” she asked. Kurt, to his credit, did turn to hug her.

“No, it has to do with our baby,” he told her. “We’ve decided we want to have one.”

“Congratulations!”

“There! Finally some support,” Rachel huffed.

“...Some support for what?”

“Everyone thinks it’s too soon. I for one think we should instead be focused on supporting our friends as they start a new chapter in their lives.”

“Oh! Here I thought you were going to say you were their surrogate.”

“Well if I’d already won a Tony then maybe but pregnant women can’t really perform big dance numbers so no, no I’m not.”

“Wait you’d actually consider it?” Blaine said. For the both of them. Kurt’s jaw was too busy dropping to the floor to speak.

“ _Maybe_. Ok? _Maybe_.”

“We’re really growing up,” Tina sighed. “Ugh I can’t believe you two are trying to have a baby and I’m not even engaged or anything.” Blaine caught Artie’s eye and pointed a little bit. He knew that his best girl friend was trying her hardest not to fall in love with her first boyfriend. He also knew she was failing. Artie mouthed back that he had a girlfriend. Blaine just rolled his eyes. The coffee shop girl was nice but she wasn’t going to last. They all knew it.

“None of us aren’t engaged,” Sam placated her.

“But they’ve been married for three beautiful years.”

“Yeah, just three years,” Santana emphasized.

“Can we just focus on why we’re here,” Sam cut back in. “We can deal with this whole...baby fiasco later.”

“Fiasco?” Blaine repeated, the hurt seeping up in his voice.

“The New Directions are the new school bullies.”

“What?”

“Oh hell no.”

“That’s impossible!”

“It’s true,” Kurt told them. “They find slushies hilarious and they bully other kids so they won’t even try out.”

“Kick them out!” Rachel declared.

“It’s not that easy,” Sam rebounded. “We don’t have solid proof. And...they aren’t bad kids.”

“Think Puck and Santana when they first signed up,” Kurt offered.

“Hey!” Puck called out.

“Oh come on it’s true. You were still bullying with the best of them until your mohawk got shaved.”

“You know I bullied out of love.”

“Love doesn’t make the rotten cafeteria waste smell any more appealing.”

“...yeah, I’m actually really sorry about that. Wait do these new kids throw people in dumpsters?”

“Oh god I hope not,” Sam gasped. “I haven’t checked.”

“What are we going to do?” Tina asked.

“What we do best,” Blaine told her. “Perform.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing Poll:  
> 1\. Should the baby be boy, girl, or intersex?  
> 2\. Should Kurt or Blaine be the genetic father? (whether or not they know whose it is - which father should the baby resemble?)  
> 3\. BABY NAMES GUYS GIVE ME ALL YOUR IDEAS


	5. I thought it was over - oh, that's just great.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title derived from High School Never Ends - Bowling for Soup  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrxI_euTX4A

The original New Directions divas couldn’t be sure if they weren’t enjoying themselves because New York had spoiled them or if they had just become too old for McKinley’s mall. As they passed by another pack of teenage girls Kurt became certain it was the latter. He was going to be twenty five in the spring. That was a whole ten years older than the apparent typical age of the average mall shopper. Or twenty years younger on the other end of the spectrum. There were a lot of mothers hanging about. Probably because the teens were still too young to drive. Or maybe they were all part of that new breed of teenager he’d heard about that didn’t want to become independent from their parents and get their licences.

“Aw,” Rachel cooed as she pointed towards a young girl with a child, about one year old, on her hip. 

“I think I remember seeing her around McKinley yesterday,” Mercedes whispered. “Things really don’t ever change.”

“Pregnancy rates have gone down since Mr. Schue mandated a more comprehensive and inclusive sex ed though,” Kurt informed them. “Sam also had to take a lot fewer kids to Planned Parenthood last year than he did his first year...Sometimes I think I might want to be a teacher someday just so I can be a kids’ confidant when they don’t feel safe talking to their parents.”

“Actually, you could sign up to perform and speak at schools,” Rachel told him. “They’re always looking for inspiring people to come in and talk to the kids.”

“I could. That’s not the same as being there for them every single day.”

“Speaking of being there for kids every single day,” Mercedes said as she linked her arm with his. “Have you guys even decided how our first mini diva is going to join the family yet?”

“Well, it’s...it’s difficult. Either direction we go really. We know we want a baby, and please don’t lecture us on how there’s so many older kids out there who need a home. I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of rule that you have to be at least ten years older than the kid you adopt. Or that might be some international law I read once, I don’t know. But I agree with that. So given Blaine’s age that starts at twelve and thirteen year olds, so none of those teenagers everyone is always talking about. And...I just. I want to know that we raised that baby. That that baby is ours. I want a baby. Is that so selfish?”

“No, not really. Not everyone is cut out for adopting older kids. I’ve been thinking that I might, someday, when I’m ready to raise children, but it’s totally your choice to have a baby.”

“Thank you.”

“So adopting babies, or surrogacy?”

“Well, ok, so either way we have to wait. We have to wait until someone picks us to adopt their baby. We have to wait until we find a surrogate. I’m sure we could find egg donors but we want to find someone in New York if we do go with that because the parents to be are expected to cover all costs, including travel and putting someone up if they come from a far off place. Which NYC is a huge place so we shouldn’t have a lot of trouble finding someone nearby. Surrogates are the bigger problem. We want someone we can trust. Which means we’re leaning more towards adoption, but there’s a lot of red tape there too. I just...I don’t want there to be any question or any way for anyone to take our child away from us. And if we’re genetically linked to the child then we’ll have more claim than if we aren’t. Its still hard to get courts to side with anyone but the birth mother but...at least we’ll have something.”

“I agree, it’s really scary,” Rachel said. She bit her lip as her friends walked on ahead of her. It was nagging, deep inside, just crying out and telling her to do something, to help them, just like Shelby had done for her dads. Only this time it wasn’t a stranger. It was someone who truly loved them. 

But she couldn’t. Not until she won a Tony. She’d wanted to be up there accepting her first by twenty five and that number was fast approaching and she still didn’t have any hints that she would be considered any time soon.

“I just really don’t want to end up like that kid from One Tree Hill having to set sail for distant shores because some lady who had nothing to do with actually caring for and raising the baby just decided to show up and make it hers.”

“I’m glad you went with that analogy,” Mercedes said. 

“As opposed to what?”

“Something closer to home.”

“That...has been on our minds. A lot. It’s what scares us from adoption. I know we don’t necessarily have protection with a surrogate either but at least it will be someone we trust. That’s our requirement. Someone we trust.”

“How’s that going?”

“So far it’s a no go. No one is at a place in their life where they can ‘risk’ being pregnant. And the ones who might be are too young to ask. It’d be creepy. Like Sue Sylvester encouraging all us boys to go donate down at the sperm bank levels of creepy. Even though we’re all friends and all adults now...just..no!”

“So it’s probably going to be adoption.”

“Most likely. But then we should probably adopt outside of NYC or even New York state in general in that case. I don’t want anyone showing up and telling our child ‘I’m your mom and I want you back from these men’ and who knows. Traumatizing our baby, or worse. Making them hate us and leave us.”

“That doesn’t happen that often, I’m pretty sure. Just on TV.”

“There was a case on the news last week.”

“...I said often. It doesn’t happen often.” 

Somehow they found themselves in line for coffee. Kurt elbowed Rachel and pointed out that they could, apparently, make an ‘NYC Espresso.’ She just smiled and brushed him off. “I need to go back and check something out,” she told them. “It’s been nagging at me for the last ten minutes. I’ll be right back I swear. Get me whatever you think I’ll like. I trust you guys.”

“Yeah but don’t blame us if it’s still awful - I don’t know if we can trust this shop,” Kurt laughed after her as she ran off. “I’ve been going to the same place since I moved to New York, seriously. It’s like all other coffee just can’t measure up.”

“Well, welcome back to Ohio,” Mercedes told him. “This is probably the best you’re going to get around here.” It took them almost no time at all to place their order, though apparently it would be a five to ten minute wait for the drinks themselves. So the two remaining divas procured a table inside the shop. To avoid the traffic. And the new high school slang they heard bouncing around. “Did we sound that ridiculous to older people when we were in school?”

“I don’t think so. We didn’t really have any weird words we tried to shoehorn into every conversation. But then I could be biased because we sound normal to me. Like...a British person in London surrounded by a bunch of Americans.”

“Speaking of weird words, I heard a few that I haven’t heard since we were Sophomores. The Trouble Tones showed me Jacob Ben Israel’s old blog. Apparently everyone in the school has watched all those old videos.”

“And their absolute favorite was when I got slushied right after making a big speech about people saying things to my face. Ugh. That summer was easy, remember? We all hung out, and it was like all those comments were miles away and could never touch us.”

“And then we came back and it was the same thing just in person. They weren’t hiding behind their computers like we thought. They were just using it to keep attacking us while they were off at sports camp or vacationing in the Bahamas or whatever it is they all did.”

“I feel so stupid right now.”

“Why?”

“Because I actually thought that everything was honestly changing. But...you know, it actually makes sense. That they’re like this. They don’t have any competition, there’s nothing to humble them. The entire school is literally built around the New Directions...and it’s all our fault.” He looked over, hoping Mercedes would tell him he was wrong. She just hung her head in agreement.

“Oh. My god. MERCEDES!” someone screamed. “It really is you, it really is oh my god I can’t believe it you’re here in person oh my god!”

“You take care of them, I’ll get the coffee?”

“Thank you,” Mercedes whispered, giving his hand a quick squeeze before hurrying over to placate her fans before they drew more attention. She held a specific niche in the music industry that made her obscure enough to move around their hometown without too much fuss but of course all the kids from all the local churches adored her. She made pop that they were allowed to listen to after all. Kurt kept all those comments to himself. His friend was an amazing performer and a great songwriter. Her music just wasn’t something he personally would choose to listen to due to it’s typical content. There were some songs he’d downloaded from iTunes though. Just...not whole albums.

He shuffled towards the crowd of people waiting for their cups. There was a mother in front of him with two kids below the age of six. There were some others each with one kid moving by. First time moms. His arms curled around himself. If the New Directions were his legacy in this town then maybe he just might not be the best role model for a child of his own. Those thoughts were fleeting though as a little girl turned her big eyes to him. Her hand reached up to wave. He waved back. She squealed with joy.

He wanted to be a daddy. He just needed to prove to himself that he would be good at it. He needed to reform the new generation of the New Directions.

By the time Mercedes came back he had already cemented himself in his determination. “We are going to fix this.”

“Fix what?”

“The New Directions. I would be absolutely ashamed if those kids were mine, but we can’t just throw them out. They are incredibly talented, like Rachel. They’re also spoiled just like Rachel. But she turned out just fine. They’re mean like Puck used to be, and look how he turned out. He’s a hero. And I mean we also have to think about people like...like Karofsky, or even Jesse. Actually, Jesse especially! He came right out of Vocal Adrenaline and look at him now. He’s a great guy and a good friend of ours.”

“Is that all you’ve been thinking about while waiting for coffee?”

“Yes. Well, that and how awful this coffee is.”

“Cheers to that.” They tapped their cups against each other. “I’m spoiled completely rotten on my european coffee.”

“New York is better.”

“Uh-huh keep telling yourself that.”

“Remember when this coffee was amazing?”

“I can’t believe we were ever so innocent. Now - the New New Directions. Were you trying to say that they need our help? After everything they’ve been doing? Sam told me that they’ve been bullying kids into transferring.”

“Just like Karofsky did.”

“Who he is now doesn’t excuse what he did then. I don’t care if he’s a complete and total teddy bear, who he is now doesn’t excuse who he was then. He hurt you really bad. You were practically sick from worry and stress on top of everything else he was actually doing. He learned his lesson because there were enough people who weren’t going to let him get away with that-”

“No. I mean, yes, but no. He learned his lesson because enough people told him that he didn’t have to be a bully to get what he wanted in life. We taught him that he could find the love he was looking for just being himself. He wasn’t a bully at his core.”

“Kurt, I love your optimism. But if we’re still comparing these kids to him, they’re rotten at the core and he’s a total saint. They’re...they’re Vocal Adrenaline!”

“Don’t let them hear you say that,” Rachel interjected, flawlessly putting herself between them as though she had never left.

“What did you buy?”

“Nothing. Changed my mind again. Anyway, do not, do not, do not ever let them hear you say the V-A words around them. I mentioned them and you know what the kids said? Do you know what they said?! They laughed about how Vocal Adrenaline was the ‘second besters.’ That they weren’t competition at all. Ever. They were laughable. If we compared the two in front of any of our kids then we definitely will never ever ever stand a chance at reforming them. They’ll never take us seriously again.”

“That’s it!” Kurt declared, throwing his hands in the air. “It’s official. We need to strip them over their name and just call them Vocal Adrenaline from now on. UGH! But we can’t give up on them.” He couldn’t give up on them. He had to be worthy of fatherhood.

“Right. They’re just...a whole bunch of divas who’ve never been humbled. They’ve never, mmm, had to sell their CDs out of the back of a car. They’ve never received a rejection letter from NYADA.”

“They never had an entire TV show flame out, only to come back like a phoenix and have what is promising to be the most amazing broadway career ever,” Mercedes jested, giving Rachel a half hug to apologize for bringing up that fiasco.

“And we all know how many times I’ve messed up. Quitting NYADA, quitting my dream role on Broadway...that show. And not to mention the one thing we all have in common.”

“Besides our killer taste in men?” Kurt joked as they stole a seat on the edge of the fountain. 

“Besides that.”

“What?”

“Glee. Our glee. We were so unpopular that we made the popular kids that joined us unpopular. And let’s not kid ourselves here, we had more jocks and cheerleaders than the football team and cheerios combined sometimes. One time we even had the whole football team with us. And none of that could make us cool. We had to earn everything that we have. But the price of earning it means that the kids who came after us already had it. Though it did get taken away and re-earned a couple times after that, the fact still remains that we did all the hard work and now they’re reaping the rewards we always wanted.” She tried not to be jaded that they got the popularity she had wanted. It didn’t matter anymore - and besides that, all her experiences had made her into a powerful performer who could handle herself when faced with the dark side that came with it.

“I never thought we’d have to coach Vocal Adrenaline,” Mercedes sighed.

“Even our fearless leader couldn’t handle it,” Kurt reminded them both.

“But he was alone,” Rachel chirped. “Now not only do they have him, but they have every single one of us. Every New Direction that came before them. We aren’t going to give up on these kids. Come on. We need to get back to work.” The Queen Diva turned and stormed her way to the mall’s exit in her trademarked way. She was on a mission and Kurt and Mercedes were not about to be left behind.

\-----------------

“No, Puck,” Blaine groaned as his head dipped into his hands. They were supposed to be working on their set for his big pep rally finale but of course they had all become completely preoccupied with the great crisis at hand. Puck was in the middle of his usual boyish antics. Growing up and joining the military did nothing to deter him. No - he’d only managed to get even more grand ideas.

“I don’t think there’s a way to give them all a wedgie at the same time anyway,” Sam sighed.

“What about-”

“And we are far above slushying people!” Artie chastised. “We’re not going to win by sinking to their level.”

“You’ve been spending way too much time with Kurt,” the military captain pouted.

“I pity your men.”

“I bet they’re regretting their life choices,” Mike added as he tried to focus on the building part of their task. 

“We’re the best regiment ever,” Puck defended, puffing himself up. 

“What we really need is a Tibideaux smackdown,” Kurt announced as he glided in, supplies in arm. The guys didn’t need to know about the mall detour. It was right beside the supply store anyway and what else were they supposed to do while the workers were gathering up their order. That took a good while to prepare.

“She’s not so scary.”

“Oh really? The one time you met her you-”

“What are the girls up to?”

“Tina and Mercedes are working on the costumes, I’m about to get back to that. Rachel, Brittany, and Santana are working on the dance. Quinn is trying to recruit everyone else that we might be able to get. Any other alumni that are willing to come back and visit. Oh! Speaking of she asked me if you’d invite your brother.”

“Uhmmmm, I actually haven’t heard from him in a few months...So yeah I’ll definitely call him.”

“Better keep an eye on that one,” a completely unexpected voice crooned out from the wings. “If he’s anything thing like you he’s deep in trouble.”

“Does Quinn know you’re here?” Puck replied to her smoothly. “Or Rachel?”

“Well considering they’re the ones who invited me, I’d say yes.” The crowd fell completely silent as Shelby moved to center stage. She took a deep breath when she arrived there too. The genetics were clear. Kurt and Blaine shared a glance. Rachel hadn’t met her until she was almost sixteen years old and still the likeness was uncanny. And Beth, trailing along just beyond her mother’s shadow. The girl was the spitting image of Quinn. Head high, bold, taking the world like she owned it. Or maybe Quinn, Rachel, and Shelby were all just far too similar. They could only hope that was the case.

“Not to be rude,” Sam offered as politely as he could, “but...Why are you here?”

“Will asked me to come work with the Trouble Tones a bit, at Quinn’s request. Like old times. It’s supposed to be fun. And then I saw your little problem and it reminded me of something. Don’t you remember how great it was when you had that friendly, healthy competition with the girls?”

“You mean when Santana almost broke Rory’s nose?” Artie interjected.

“That...was not what I was trying to refer to.”

“No offense but that split was probably the worst thing that ever happened,” Mike stated.

“We did all become better performers,” Blaine tried.

“They’re already great performers. What they need is an attitude check.”

“Not all competition is bad,” Kurt interjected. “The very first diva off was the first time that Rachel and I actually kind of sort of started to be friends.”

“I thought you two were going to kill each other,” Puck said flatly. “How is that friendship?”

“Well, for the first time ever she acknowledged she might not be the most amazing performer ever, that there might be someone just as good as her. And...well I didn’t trust her for a moment until after I’d transferred to Dalton and she started calling every night to make sure I was ok. But! That was her moment when she really started to learn that it’s a team effort. She’d still be singing in a diner if she hadn’t learned that. A star is only useful if they can work with everyone around them. Once they become a spoiled brat no one wants to hire them, no one wants to work with them, and honestly they sound worse too because they’re too busy trying to be the only person anyone hears. We were just talking about this, uh, while we were getting the supplies. They need some competition. And competition doesn’t always have to be mean.”

“Well said!” Shelby applauded. “And exactly what I was trying to get at. This is a school overflowing with teenage divas. And I never would have said this when you were in school, but that’s the absolute worst kind of diva. The entire world is theirs and, as far as tv has led them to believe, they have to take all the attention all the time or they will never get anywhere. They have to be the only one that matters. And these kids have taken it more literally than anyone I’ve seen yet.”

“How is making them compete going to make them respect other people more when they always just win?” Artie reasoned.

“They need real competition. They might even need to lose at something. Someone else needs the chance to shine. And who do you think would be the best at that?”

“Wasn’t Vocal Adrenaline disbanded last year after losing again at regionals?” Mike asked.

“I was thinking someone closer to home.”

“You mean the Duly Noteds and Trouble Tones,” Blaine realized. “But they’re always been destroyed at sectionals, because they always go up against the New Directions-”

“Who may or may not potentially be cheating in ways that we can’t prove,” Sam interjected. “So we need to split them up. The reason they’re always placed together at sectionals is because they’re all in this area, but they aren’t the only groups in this area.”

“We just need to petition the board or whoever it is that makes the decisions to cycle through who goes against who every year, like they used to. Before this became the densest spot for glee clubs in the entire nation.”

“We need the girls,” Puck stated.

“...Why?”

“Because I’d much rather punch someone than write letters and make phone calls, so this plan is something we need to enact with people who have more patience than me.”

“Good point.” Sam led the charge to the costume design room. Shelby grabbed Kurt and Blaine before they could follow.

“So, I’ve heard that you two are taking a big step soon,” she whispered.

“Did Rachel tell you?” Blaine groaned. Seeing as she’d told everyone else. He wasn’t particularly pleased with their friend. He had wanted the big reveal - maybe a song, on stage, with everyone watching. Or maybe not. That was super cheesy even for him. But he’d wanted to be the one (or, rather, he’d wanted him and Kurt to be the ones) to tell. And Rachel had gone and spoiled it.

“No. Quinn did, actually.” Shelby reached out to wrap an arm around Beth. “Sweetie why don’t you go practice the piano?” The girl skipped away, but her glance back wasn’t lost on the adults. She knew what was up. She was getting too old to be fooled. “She means well, but she’s worried. And she has good reason to. She might not be Beth’s mom, but she is still deeply invested in Beth. She didn’t give Beth up out of a lack of caring. She gave Beth up to give her the best shot she could possibly have.”

“Please don’t tell us we can’t have kids just because-” Blaine started.

“No, I’m going to tell you the opposite. Have as many babies as you want. Have all the babies in the world. I want to help you.”

“You?” Kurt started. 

“Yes. I’ve been in multiple positions that you’re going to be dealing with. I’ve been the surrogate, I’ve been the woman who thought it would be easier than it was. I’ve gone through a lot of what Quinn’s going through even if Rachel wasn’t ever really actually my child. And I’ve been the adoptive parent who has every right to her child but...had to deal with the unhappy mother who ‘took someone’s baby’ from them.”

“You didn’t take anyone’s baby-”

“But that’s how I felt sometimes. That’s what it can feel like. I felt responsible for Quinn’s pain even though I did nothing wrong. Because I’ve had that pain too. Even though Rachel’s parents did nothing wrong. I became their surrogate knowing full well what I was getting into and I still felt cheated when I saw her all grown up and knew I had missed out on having a child of my own. Maybe not her, but...she could have been mine. And that’s when I got Beth, and became like her parents. And for Beth’s safety I actually had to keep her away from Quinn. Which made me worse than Rachel’s parents even though I was doing what was best. My point is, you’re probably going to have to make some very tough decisions to do what is best for your family. And it’s going to suck. But when you become parents you have to put that child first no matter who it hurts.”

“That doesn’t sound-” Blaine whispered.

“I know. It sounds cruel. Especially if you adopt from a teenage mom like Quinn. It’s not fair to them, but the most important thing is raising your child in the best way you can. I wanted Beth to get to know Quinn a long time ago, but it wasn’t safe. Quinn could have hurt her. She could have ruined her life. Now that Quinn is older...maybe we can reopen the possibilities. But I had to make a horrible decision to protect my daughter. You have to be ready to do that. No matter if you adopt or get a surrogate. There are going to be very difficult choices and you have to make them. You will have to be the bad guys to somebody at some point.”

Blaine’s hand searched out for Kurt’s. Kurt latched on and held tight. “We were leaning towards adoption,” he confessed. 

“Why?”

“Because...it’s so hard to find a surrogate we can trust. And in New York we need someone that we can believe in without a doubt if we go that route, thanks to that stupid law.”

“Adoption can go the same way. Unless you adopt a child who is the literal fictional sense of an orphan. No parents, no family to come out of the blue and give you a hard time. Nothing is going to be easy for you two. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. Neither of you can carry the child so you have to rely on a third party. And third parties always bring problems. Like the in-laws you never wanted. But you have to accept them to be with the person you love most. And I’m here to help you through that. Besides, I could always use more business for my daycare.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” 

“Don’t thank me yet. You’re probably going to hate me before we’re through.” She turned and left. Just in time for the rest of their friends to come barreling back in. They didn’t have time to focus on babies right now. They had a bunch of teenagers to save.


	6. This is My Fight Song

Morning announcements. With Sue busy elsewhere (and essentially banned from ever teaching or leading or even entering a school again ever), the task had been turned over to the kids. There was now a brand new media club that handled everything from the website to the school newspaper (and blog - now monitored to ensure no extreme bullying videos of kids being slushied against their will became semi-viral hits, at Kurt’s suggestion) to the announcements. They had a proper little studio with a green screen and everything set up. It wasn’t professional by any means - just a table and a couple chairs and enough room for a camera - but it was more than enough room for the ND Alumni to cram themselves in.

Blaine tried his best not to press his behind too hard against Kurt as they squished themselves closer and closer together to fit in a few more people. The taller boys made up the back row and everyone else filled the space in front of them. Kurt leaned forward to rest his chin on Blaine’s shoulder. “Hey.”

“No,” Santana spat immediately, pushing Blaine over in front of Puck to break them up. “No one wants to see that.”

“I was just-”

“No.”

“Everyone stop fighting!” Rachel demanded as she squeezed herself into the spot directly in front of the camera. “Do we all know our parts?”

“You mean how we hum back up while you talk?”

“Now is not the time to-”

“No I agree with Santana,” Mercedes said. “I know this was last minute but we’re all successful in our fields, we should all have the chance to say something.”

“But that would take forever. We have two minutes.”

“But we’re trying to address everyone, not just the divas who get all the attention.”

“Was that an insult?”

“Can we please not fight right now,” Blaine tried to soothe everyone out. “Why don’t we let Rachel talk now and we’ll all talk during the lunch periods to give everyone more information and inspiration?”

“Everyone except Rachel?” Santana said, cocking her hips and tilting her chin up.

“That’s not fair!” Rachel demanded.

“You being in the middle isn’t fair but I’m compromising right now. You should too. Besides you know the dynamic duo will be able to handle anything you want to say about theater. You aren’t the only person with buckets of talent and you aren’t the only person who is a rising star in your field. Deal with it. Or let someone else do this piece.”

“...No. I need to do this.” Kurt could see it on her face. If she did this then she would be positioned as the go-to person no matter what else they did. He had already accepted that this would happen. She had an insatiable need to be the center of attention. It was just who she was. He honestly didn’t mind at this point. Mostly because they filled two very different needs in the industry, what with having completely different anatomy.

Of course he didn’t tell Santana any of that. She seemed satisfied with her trade and they didn’t have time for more fights. They were going live.

“GOOOD MORNING MCKINLEY!” the peppiest fourteen year old anyone had ever laid eyes on squealed as soon as the light turned on. “Welcome back for another totally transcendental Tuesday at Ohio’s best high school! The weather is bright and warm, the lunch ladies have informed me that we have tacos and tater tots all ready for lunch, and our illustrious alumni are here to give us this week’s lesson! I know, I know, I gave you one yesterday, but things are always open for change around a creative place like this.” She passed over the mike, a smile never ever fading from her features. Her mouth was bigger than Sam’s, somehow. It was almost incredibly terrifying.

“Well, thank you very much for that introduction,” Rachel stammered, just as put off as everyone else. “Hello McKinley. If you haven’t met us already we are, well, were the New Directions. We are the ones who started it all. Mercedes Jones was the very first person who signed up, and Kurt, Tina, and Artie and myself were all there when Principal Shue gave us our first song, and the very, very first lesson of the week. So it’s an honor now to be here, with the opportunity to teach you just like he taught us.”

The person behind the camera tapped at his wrist. They’d already eaten up most of their time. Oops. No one would hold it against them in particular if they went over a little though. They were this week’s special guest stars. It was their duty to shake everything up.

“We are all going to be working with you guys this week,” she continued on, not paying any attention anyway. “Dancers, singers, actors, fashion-lovers, film buffs- we have something for all of you, and it’s all going to culminate in a big presentation of McKinley this Friday! I know a week doesn’t seem like a lot of time to most of you but it’s completely doable when you set your mind to it, and when you have help from the people around you. This week is showcase week, and you all better be working _together_ to make it outstanding. The gym will be showcase alley during the day and five select groups will be chosen to perform that evening in the auditorium where tickets will be sold to raise funds to benefit the arts.” What she didn’t tell them was that they were going to be taking that funding and splitting it between two schools they knew needed it much more than McKinley - the school for the deaf and that girls’ reform school. “So, start planning McKinley, because showcase week has just begun!”

They were all quite proud of themselves as the camera clicked off. Then they saw their leader. “Not that I’m complaining, but I would have loved a heads up that we were cancelling classes Friday,” Will laughed. “I take it this is what you’re doing for that assembly time I offered?”

“It’s actually really brilliant,” Sam said. “While we were emailing and calling the show choir board members last night we realized that half of the problem we’ve been having is that most of the school doesn’t feel good enough or confident enough.”

“They’re teenagers, that’s what teenagers do,” Kurt clarified. “And when they have someone bigger, badder, and tougher calling the shots, unless they have somewhere to outlet themselves, they’re talents could very well end up, well, going nowhere and...” Blaine rubbed his shoulder.

“The best part about McKinley was that, back when we were the underdogs, there was always a place for the freaks geeks and weirdos to shine and really become the best they could be at whatever it is they wanted to become, no judgement,” Blaine picked up for his husband. “We were really hoping that we might be able to give kids that may have never even met before a shot at meeting and finding their own path to discovering who they are, the same way we did.”

“Because, let’s be real, none of us would have ever talked to each other if not for glee,” Puck finished. “Well, except the football players and the cheerleaders. So maybe Santana and Brittany would have gotten together. But...maybe not I mean we dated for like two and a half years, sort of.”

“I am so proud of all of you,” Will sighed. “You’re all coming over to my place for dinner, right?” He smiled at the chorus of small cheers and yeses.

“Is it ok if Jesse comes too?” Rachel asked. “He’s going to be here by three today and it’d be kind of weird, we’re his only friends in Ohio now so-”

“It’s fine. Everyone is welcome. And I promise there will be no eggs.”

“He really is sorry about that. He was a very different person then.”

“Come on you guys, you’re going to be late to your classes.” He turned to go back to his paperwork and board dealings - that was the life of the principal. He’d developed new respect for Figgins over the last few years. There wasn’t much time to be actively involved in the students’ lives anymore, no matter how hard he tried. But everything seemed to be going as alright as any high school could go. His kids were all doing well academically and everyone who got involved in something seemed to be excelling. With all the meetings and legalities he had to answer to, it was the best he could ask for. He had to rely on his legacies to bring up the new generation now.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---  
The Duly ‘Warblers’ were definitely very...Warbler-y. That was all Kurt could think as he looked over the boys that he and Blaine were visiting that day. They all dressed similarly, hung out together, and focused very heavily on, well, uniformity. “You’re Blaine Anderson!” one practically squealed.

“Anderson-Hummel,” he corrected. “And this is my husband, Kurt Anderson-Hummel.” He tried to encourage them to give attention to his husband but he had a feeling that they would be just like all the other Warblers before them. Kurt had been wonderful but he was the Blaine Anderson. He’d been a Dalton star and everyone knew it. He’d just fit in there perfectly because he had been so good at conforming. He was the paragon of a Warbler. Even though these guys weren’t the Warblers, they were still basically the Warblers.

Kurt waved politely, and the boys waved politely back, but quickly returned to recounting Blaine’s sophomore year. And how he, apparently single handedly preserved the Warbler legacy by bringing them to McKinley. Blaine corrected them at every turn, but Kurt could see a pattern. All these boys were sons of Dalton graduates. They would have gone to Dalton if it was still standing. Apparently, from what they gathered, any boy who would have been trying out for the Warblers had been transferred to McKinley when the school burned down (since no one knew how long it would take to rebuild). It would probably be a decade or more before that smoothed itself out considering apparently some kids started preparing for their auditions in Kindergarten. Kurt bristled at the clique-ness of it all.

“Is it true that you almost won nationals for the Warblers?” one asked.

“...No,” Blaine replied flatly. “I don’t even...no. I mean, the year Kurt and I sang our duet together we almost made it to Nationals after that. And then there was the year everyone became one group when we both led the New Directions to their nationals win.”

“It’s ok Blaine,” Kurt whispered softly to him. “Soak it up. You’re their idol, so own it.”

“But-”

“I’m ok. Enjoy yourself.” Yes, Kurt was jealous, but he wasn’t going to blame anyone for this.

“Ok, uhm, how about...instead of questions, you guys show us what you’re working on.”

“We’re working on a super awesome throwback song,” one announced cheerfully.

“Lady. Gaga,” another echoed. Blaine and Kurt locked eyes for a moment, suppressing their laughter. Lady Gaga was throwback now. It was bound to happen eventually, with the music industry being as fickle as it had been in recent years. No one style seemed to last very long anymore.

“Alright, let’s see it,” Blaine encouraged them.

“I’m gonna marry the night,” their lead began. Kurt’s eyes chased after his husband. This was the new Blaine of the not-Warblers of McKinley. He was a dapper kid too. He was probably stealing a lot of hearts at this school. “I won’t give up on my life-” The rest started humming along, just like the Warblers used to. Kurt could feel the back of his neck prickling. He didn’t dislike the Warblers. He actually was quite fond of them. But it was almost cultish how these boys followed after their traditions. “I’m a warrior king, live passionately tonight.”

“I’m gonna marry the dark,” another echoed. “Gonna make love to the stark - I’m a soldier to my own emptiness-”

“I am a winner.”

Their great Warbler idol leaned back casually against the piano, a smile plastered over his face. This felt like a little piece of home to him. A warm blanket that would always be there for him. As long as the Warblers legacy lived on, so did Dalton. That beautiful sanctuary would not be lost. Though as he watched, he didn’t feel as happy as he knew he should. Even after he’d left Dalton, he hadn’t truly left either, and for as much pride as he had in his past he knew that it had brought problems. He’d been clingy, and in constant need of approval, just like these boys. He’d needed the people around him to constantly be building him up. After he’d truly broken away from it he’d actually managed to find his own strengths. He didn’t need a crowd around him to reaffirm him any more.

“I’m gonna lace up my boots,  
Throw on some leather and cruise  
Down the street that I love  
In my fishnet gloves,  
I’m a sinner.”

“Then I’ll go down to the bar  
But I won’t cry anymore.  
I hold my whiskey up high  
Kiss the bartender twice,  
I’m a loser.”

The chorus was so beautiful to hear though.

Kurt tried to keep himself interested but it was clear they didn’t care that he was there. He tried so hard not to be jealous, especially since it didn’t seem any group of kids in this school actually liked him. Maybe he was just sour because the bratty school wonders who he was not currently referring to as the New Directions since they marred the name had all made sure to walk by him with slushies earlier. Giggling. If not for the fact that they knew they’d be expelled, Kurt was pretty sure they would have made him ‘taste the rainbow’ in the same way the jocks used to.

He glanced out the choir room doors, just for a moment. There were two kids out in the hall. Hunched over, peeking around corners. “That’s not obvious at all,” he mumbled.

“Hm?” Blaine replied, snapping out of the moment.

“Nothing.” He rubbed Blaine’s back until his husband was sufficiently distracted again. Then he slipped out of the other choir room door. Blaine would be busy for a while signing autographs. Which meant he had time to save some kids from unnecessary detentions. Or hand out detentions. He had been given permission to. That was a fun power to have.

As he caught sight of them again, he saw them slipping into the band room. And then, as he followed them there, right into the back room where the spare instruments were kept. They seemed to know what they were up to. He hid behind the stands at first, until he was sure they didn’t suspect they were being followed, before heading over to sneak in behind them.

“Shh!” the boy whispered, glancing around as the door clicked behind Kurt.

“Oh real rich, how are we supposed to practice if you’re shushing us?” the girl hissed back, not even noticing.

“I...just get the violin.” Kurt tried to merge with the racks. The girl climbed dangerously onto one, balancing herself out by pushing one foot against the rack on the other side of the aisle as she pulled down a solitary violin case. It was battered - clearly a donation - but that didn’t seem to bother the duo. She settled herself back safely on the ground, pulling out the instrument and testing it. “Beautiful.”

“Warm up with O’s.” She played her runs softly as he ran through them vocally. Kurt closed his eyes and just listened to the sound. Their warm up was short before they moved into the piece they were clearly practicing. Maybe they were going to perform. They were talented. He couldn’t remember seeing them among any of the groups though.

Suddenly it was all interrupted. “Kurt?” Blaine called out, pushing into the room with no sense of caution. The kids scrambled but it was too late. The light of the band room was upon them. “What are you doing here?”

“They’re practicing,” Kurt came to their defense, crawling out of his hiding place and standing up tall between Blaine and the teens. “Though technically we do need to be writing them up for cutting class.” The two jumped immediately to try and defend themselves, but he held his hands up. “It’s a good thing we’re not real teachers.”

“We’re just cutting choir anyway,” the girl said. “I mean, I know you love choir and I know it’s like the most important class at this school but Ms. Webster will never even notice. She’s always too busy with her precious stars-”

“The New Directions?”

“I know we’re not part of that group but please, I heard that you guys weren’t like them, please understand we just want to practice what matters to us-”

“We can’t condone class cutting,” Blaine said softly. “You have to go back. Why are you sneaking around anyway?”

“I...I uh, didn’t make the cut for orchestra and the New Directions bullied my brother out of trying out for them. Somehow I think they had something to do with the orchestra thing too but I can’t prove that. Just because Yasmin is the head pianist doesn’t mean she has the power to make sure only her friends get in there, yadda yadda blah blah blah.”

“They bullied you out too didn’t they?” Kurt said. “Here, give me the violin for right now. Go back to class and come see us-do you have a study hall?” The two shook their heads. “Then at lunch.”

“We have that announcement at lunch,” Blaine reminded him.

“Ok, after school. Do you have anything after school?” More head shaking. Kurt suspected, from the way they looked down, that the lack of afterschool activities hadn’t been a choice either. “Come meet us in the auditorium after school. Bring anyone else who’s free and wants the chance to perform Friday night.”

“Oh come on, we all know who’s going to be picked. The New Directions, Trouble Tones, Duly Noteds-”

“First of all, no one has been chosen yet,” Blaine said. “That will be determined on Friday.”

“Second of all,” Kurt added, “there’s room for five groups. If you and your friends put your name in as a group that’s interested in the chance to perform then there’s a chance that you might win it.”

“Please. We already know who’s going to be allowed to try and who’s not. We’re in the ‘not’ category.”

“And who decided that?” The pair fell silent. “Bring your best talent and show us what you have after school. But in the meantime - get back to class before we have to tell on you.” They scampered away as Kurt started to put away the violin.

He froze as two firm hands landed on his shoulders. They melted as Blaine massaged at the muscles. “So our answer to the New Vocal Adrenaline is to form a new group of underdogs?”

“Well, they’re not necessarily a choir so that makes things a little different.”

“So they can’t compete for the show choir national championship. It’s the same idea. And don’t get me wrong, I’m ok with that. Everyone deserves the chance to shine. But we’re only here until Friday. It’s not like we have months to build up their confidence and help them form a lifelong family to fall back on in times of need. We have three and a half days.”

“...Well, at the very least we can plant the spark, show them that people are noticing them and that it’s ok for them to follow their own path.”

“Let all the freak flags fly high, right?”

“Precisely.”

“We’re going to be really busy this week aren’t we?”

“Definitely.” He glanced back at his pouting husband. “Don’t worry. I’ll have plenty of energy for you later. Just as long as you save enough energy for me.” Blaine’s head popped up as he looked towards the open doors, making sure there weren’t any kids to hear them. “Deal?”

“Deal. Now, uh, we need to get back to our class. I gave them ten minutes to come up with something spontaneous. I think we’re pushing fifteen minutes. They’re going to get suspicious.”


	7. Oh But Ain't That America

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOfkpu6749w  
> Kurt's Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve4R-QFNA9k  
> Fun Fact: While titling this chapter I was torn between Pink Houses (becaue Kurt sang that song when he was struggling with his identity) and 'The Great Mid-West' also by Mellencamp. The second song is so accurate to the feeling of the midwest and what I imagine it'd be like for these guys going back after spending any prolonged period out of the midwest and seeing that, yeah, things haven't changed.   
> Here's a link if you're curious because it's just such an accurate /feeling/: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YLysICPP8M

There had been some concern that throwing the afternoon auditorium meeting into the afternoon announcements would keep kids from turning up, but apparently that had been an incorrect notion. Most kids were in extracurriculars though and they were obviously given a pass to meet with the great alumni for their Friday showcase considering that was what they were all focusing on this week.

Kurt’s main concern had been with the violin girl and her well-pitched brother. “Did you see them?” he asked of Blaine. His love had been stationed at the main exit to basically shout information with Rachel. 

“No,” he sighed. “They must have gone through the back door.” That had been Santana and Brittany’s territory, but of course they didn’t know about the pet project. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s ok. We can’t force anyone to join. I just really hoped they would want to.” Blaine reached up to rub his shoulder. He was in complete agreement. If there was one thing he’d learned in high school it was that getting involved in anything (or everything) was one of the best things about the place.

“This might cheer you up. While you and Rachel were meeting with Mr. Shue I was doing some googling, and I found something interesting.” He pulled up the page he’d been reading and waited. Kurt’s reactions were priceless, from typical curiosity to the cocked eyebrow, to the hanging jaw of ‘oh my god is that really possible?’ Blaine puffed up with pride at his little find.

“Blaine-”

“Come on you two!” Rachel scolded, pushing them to center stage. “We have to get this thing rolling to make sure everyone has enough time to work on their performances.”

“Right. Blaine, we’ll talk about this later, ok?” Kurt passed the phone back to his husband. He was shocked alright, and a bit intrigued, but he had a feeling he was about to crush the man’s spirit with a heaping dose of cynicism, and a side dish of reality.

Not all the adults were gathered on the stage. Quite a few of them were out among the crowd playing peacekeeper. Quinn had seen just one spittastic wad of paper fly and had insisted upon it. The bullying problem at McKinley was not going to fly on her radar. She put Puck and herself right down on either side of the New Directions. Clearly they were the biggest handful here. Basically it was just the usual divas. Minus Mercedes. Plus Santana. Mercedes was confident enough to not need to strut around on stage and hog the limelight. 

Not that Kurt needed to be up there either, for that reason. It was just that two people were needed to keep Rachel and Santana more than arms distance apart. Just in case. And Kurt and Blaine had wound up there by the convenience of it. Kurt had years of dealing with Rachel to his name and Blaine just worked so well with him. Plus Quinn imagined Kurt had a bit of a fiery temper of his own. She did recall Finn once telling her that Kurt made him nervous when he was angry. And Finn was huge. So there had to be something scary about one of their tiniest men to warrant that reaction. Then again, Kurt wasn’t all that small anymore. And he was pretty muscular now too, thanks to all the dancing. Which hopefully only made him double scary.

“All right, wow this turnout is great!” Rachel called out. Her voice was wavering though. Kurt stepped up beside her and put on his best cheerleader face. 

“Everyone is here for more information on Friday’s showcase, right?” he called out above them. “Listen up because this is important if you want to be picked!”

“Like there’s any contest,” one of the kids near Quinn snickered. She shot them a dirty look. They didn’t catch it.

The disrespectful banter continued on throughout the entire assembly. At least the other groups present were quiet and polite. For the most part. A couple of kids slipped in the back about five minutes in but no one paid them particular mind. Kurt and Blaine clearly noticed them though.

As everyone was starting to disperse at the end - in the most cordial manner Quinn had seen from the teens yet, mostly thanks to Puck standing around with his arms crossed giving them the look that assured each of them would have an eternal atomic wedgie should they defy him - the two men hurried through the crowd like a couple of animals. It was like they’d just gotten wind of a good sale at their favorite store. Or that Wicked needed new monkeys. 

“Trouble Tones!” she called out. “Why don’t we meet and go over some ideas?” What the dynamic duo did was none of her business.

“Watch it,” one of the girls from the NDs snapped as Kurt’s ‘Violin Girl’ tried to slip out unnoticed. “Oh wait, it’s you-”

“Keep moving!” Puck pressed.

“We’ll deal with you later.”

“Only if you want to be disqualified,” Kurt snapped at her as he arrived. “There will be a zero tolerance bullying policy while we’re here.” Technically there already was one, but things could always go under the radar. After all, somehow the Warblers had gone from beacons of morality to doing steroids in just two years. Anything was possible if someone wanted to break the rules badly enough.

“Who’s bullying? We just want to look out for our less talented classmates.”

“Right,” Blaine replied. They couldn’t just punish kids for something that hadn’t happened yet. But they were definitely watching.

“I’m glad you made it,” Kurt said to the girl as the New Direction disappeared. “Do you think you’ll be trying for a spot?”

“I...I want to,” she confessed. “Alex does too. Uhm, Alex is my brother. I’m Lexi. Alexander and Alexis Bates.”

“Twins?” Blaine asked.

“Nah. I’m a year older. But we were close enough that our parents have always treated us like twins.” 

“I don’t suppose we need to introduce ourselves?” Kurt ventured, seeing as they’d just now learned her name.

“Principal Shue’s Illustrious Alumni, Mr and Mr Anderson-Hummel,” she rattled off.

“Right.”

“Where’s your brother?” Blaine asked. There were a couple of other kids lingering around, but Alex wasn’t one of them.

“He...doesn’t know I’m here. He didn’t want to come. But...I love music. I really do. I want to go to Juilliard when I graduate. Or somewhere else where I can study violin, and other instruments too. I’d love to direct the orchestra that plays in Washington on the fourth of July every year. Or make scores for amazing films, like Star Wars. I want to make classic pieces like that. Everyone knows the Star Wars theme. And...Well, I’m kind of lacking in extra curriculars or any proof of reason that Juliard should accept me.” Kurt let out a whistle. He knew that feeling.

“That’s a lofty goal,” he told her. “And I for one would be honored to help you achieve it. And I’m guessing that starts with Friday’s little competition?”

“I mean...it’s somewhere. It’s not like there’s many violin opportunities at the community theater. They pretty much just use piano or recordings.”

“You could change that,” Blaine offered. “I’m pretty sure Juilliard would look extra favorably on someone who managed to completely turn around how the music was handled at their local theater.”

“...That sounds like a lot of work.”

“Nothing worth having ever came easy.” His hand brushed lightly over the back of Kurt’s hand. They knew it better than anyone. Everything was work. Even love. But that was the kind of work they didn’t mind having to do. It was worth it. “So is it just you, or are you going to be doing this with a group?”

“Well. Since there’s only going to be five spots, and there’s a lot of misfits who want off the island of misfit toys, it really wouldn’t be right to do something individually, so…” She turned to her companions. “We were hoping to put something together, as a group. But we’re kind of...all over the place.”

“As in?”

“I play the violin. My brother sings, but he doesn’t want to join. Liam and Sophie dance, Theresa plays electric guitar but she can do acoustic, she just doesn’t own an acoustic guitar anymore. Sold it to get the electric. And...it’s just, we don’t really mesh well. We don’t have the same style or sound or anything. But we want to do something and show those, er, well. Show everyone that we’re not the talentless freaks they make us out to be just because we aren’t like them with rich parents who’ve had us in music classes since we were two.”

“Guitars and violins can go together,” Kurt said. “It just takes a good ear to mash up the music.”

“And everyone loves a good mash up,” Blaine followed his train of thought. “Especially your judges.” 

“You really think we’d stand a chance?” Alexis asked.

“You’ll never know if you don’t try. And Juilliard isn’t going to know what you’re capable of if you never show them.”

“Then sign us up.”

“You’re number 24,” Kurt told them as he penciled them in on the clipboard and passed over a number. “Make sure this is visible during your performance on Friday.”

“Right. Uhm.” Alexis glanced around as the leaders picked out alumni tutors to help them out. Yasmine had zeroed in on Rachel and was drowning the girl in flattery. It was working. The Trouble Tones had already scooped up Santana and Mercedes, the Cheerios had grabbed Quinn and Brittany, the Duly Noteds were clearly eyeing up Blaine. Alexis stepped between him and the boys. “Would you mind listening to us for a bit today? Unless you had to go to someone else’s practice, I know you guys were booked solid-”

“We were actually going to see where we ended up after the meeting,” Blaine told her. “And since you’re the first one to ask, I think we a bit before we have to meet up with our friends to work on setting everything up.”

“Really?” The girl stood up on her tip toes for just a moment, unable to contain her excitement. “Then can you meet us at the community theater?”

“What about the choir room?” Kurt asked.

“New Directions territory. Basically everywhere in the school with a piano is already taken, but I know that we have an hour until the actors who are putting on this year’s community production come in to start rehearsal, and the piano is free use until then. And we don’t have to worry about everyone else slushying us.”

“...Right. Well, you get your instruments and we’ll meet you there?”

“Yep. And if you see Alex...uh, wait until I get there to break the news to him.”

“Of course.”

The two hung back as the last of the kids rolled out for the day. The Duly Noteds, it seemed, had latched onto Mike for the day to get help with their movement. Which was, as Blaine had pointed out. very much like the kind of choir that just stands around and sways. Which they very much still acted like they were.

“Who’s down for Don’t Stop Believing tomorrow at lunch?!” Rachel called out from the stage. Everyone ducked their heads to run.

“Not that I’m not down for it,” Artie said as he joined them, “but not at lunch. That song has too much history to just toss around randomly.”

“Maybe to kick off or as the finale for Friday,” Kurt chuckled.

“Oh I like that, you should suggest it to Rachel.”

“Me?!”

“She’s most likely to listen to you.”

“It’s true,” Blaine echoed as Sam pushed in between him and his husband to show off his Facebook.

“Kitty’s not coming at all now?!” the blonde complained. “Everyone was supposed to come back this Friday-”

“She’s got her job to think about,” Kurt interrupted him before he could get super bothered. “I guess she’s been having a really rough time with some super severe sexism from her boss. He seems to think that women weren’t made for the office, or something stupid. She even told us she couldn’t be our surrogate because of it. Something about giving the wrong impression, not to mention people not understanding that just because she’s pregnant doesn’t mean she’s a mother now.”

“Seriously? People still act like that?”

“Well she is in Kentucky-”

“I’m from Kentucky.”

“Uhm.”

“I know the south gets a really bad rap but it’s not all horrible. It’s crazies just tend to be...louder than the crazies from up north. But enough about that. Kitty’s out, but I think we knew that before you asked her. Wrong area of the country. Is anyone else stepping up?”

“No,” Blaine groaned. “Santana thinks it’d be too gross, Brittany is a dancer so she can’t really take nine or so months off right now, and Tina. Do not get me started on Tina.”

“What did Tina say?”

“She doesn’t want to ruin her figure,” Kurt whispered. “Because she’s still trying to find a man.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Blaine complained. “She’s more than just her looks and besides that she’s gorgeous. I mean, I’m not mad she told us no, I expected that, but her reason is just. So-”

“Shh. She’ll learn, in time. When she finally finds Mr. Actually-into-girls perfect, she’ll figure it out.”

“I know. I know. We just really need someone to say yes though.”

“So you are definitely going to go with surrogacy?” Artie asked.

“Maybe. If we can find someone.”

“Did you think about who would, you know, be the...you know,” Sam asked.

“Well-”

“Blaine,” Kurt tried to cut him off. He definitely didn’t want the man getting down and out before he had to go and be the beacon of shining light to teenagers on the verge of giving up on their dreams.

“I’ve been reading up on this new research they’ve been doing-” Kurt took hold of his hand but still that didn’t deter him. “Where they might be able to use the DNA of two men to create a child. And they say it could be happening very soon!”

Artie was the one who got in front of him to stop him, holding his hands up and not even hiding the frown on his face. Kurt took a sharp breath and squeezed Blaine’s hand a little tighter. “I really don’t want to burst your bubble, especially not over something this amazing,” Artie said, his voice clear and strong. Tough and firm. But there was a gentle sadness to his tone as well. “But ‘soon’ could mean decades in the science world. They’ve been working on some really good theories to cure paralysis since before my accident, and there’s still been little progress. These things...they’re wonderful, but they take a lot of time. And even when they know they have something, they have to go through the approval process and it’s just...We might see it in our lifetimes, we really truly could, but…You’re in the same boat I am. What you want is tied to babies and that kind of rubs a lot of people the wrong way.”

“How is walking tied to babies?”

“Stem cells. They’re forever tied to the word ‘embryo’ which is never going to be accepted no matter what sense it’s in because that embryo could be a baby. And yours has the potential to create babies that, well, won’t make it because they won’t have the right types of chromosomes. People aren’t going to like that either.” 

“Not to mention two guys having a baby together isn’t exactly high on the priority list,” Kurt whispered as he watched Blaine’s shoulders melt down. The man was positively shrinking before his eyes. “We’ve come a long way but there’s still a large number of people that don’t want us together at all, and even more beyond that that ‘are ok with it’ but don’t think we should have kids. I’m not saying it won’t happen someday, but in the meantime-”

“It’s not going to be an option for us,” Blaine sighed. 

“It’s really not a big deal to me, I promise.” Kurt took his hand. “If you want to be the-”

“It’s not about that. It’s...Can you imagine, a kid that is all ours, no one else’s? Just ours.”

“Even with the genetics part, you’d still need a surrogate,” Sam cut in. “Sorry, but...it’s true. I mean I read somewhere that it’s scientifically possible but no man would ever want to do it. Because their body would be ripped to shreds and they would die.”

“...Yeah I have no desires to be a mother. That’s gross.” He pulled Kurt’s hand close to his chest and just held it there for a long moment as reality sunk in once again. He was a hopeless dreamer and it was so easy for him to lose himself when he wasn’t anchored down. Blaine knew that. But there was a reason for it too. Reality kind of really sucked sometimes. Still, as long as Kurt was there, reality could be pretty amazing too.

“We really need to get going,” Kurt whispered. “All those kids are all waiting on all of us to lend our wisdom, and we’d be letting Will down if we didn’t give that to them.”

“Yeah I’m never going to get used to that,” Artie said as he turned to head off to help his group of filmmakers on their project.

“It gets easier with time,” Sam laughed. “See you guys later.”

\-----------------------

The theater wasn’t that far from the school. Kurt remembered the way - his mother used to take him when he was really young. The two held hands the whole way. That small act alone seemed to rejuvenate Blaine, at least a little. No one was going to mess with them now. It was broad daylight, they had clear muscles for miles despite their New York style of dress, and, for the most part, people didn’t seem to care anyway. They knew that wasn’t entirely true. People were still really weird about gay couples, but it was more along the same old lines of ‘so...who’s the woman?’ Which never got less annoying to Kurt, mostly because they regularly looked him over as they asked the question as if to say ‘it’s you, right? obviously?’ To which he often found a way to get into the discussion of cars just to throw them off. 

“Oooo-” he started as they reached the theater. There was a spectacular 1975 parked out front of it in perfect (extra shiney) condition. 

“Come on,” Blaine chuckled as he pulled the man past it. “We’re on a time limit.” 

“I wonder if its owner is inside.”

“Probably. I bet its the directors. Anyone with enough time to direct plays for fun has to have a pretty good job.”

“Mm, but isn’t that the dream? Having enough time and money to just enjoy the theater in all its wonderful ways?”

“You don’t enjoy the theater?”

“I do, but we’d have a lot more freedom to explore more, ah, different kinds of theater. Experimental. You know-”

“Mm, you mean where people don’t make it hard for you to play lead?”

“...Yeah.”

“There’s a new breed of writers and directors coming up with us. If the play at the Lincoln Center goes well, there’s going to be a whole lot of new room for some really big changes. And, in the meantime, you are a super hot Billy Flynn.”

“But you’re the romantic lead in Titanic. No one swoons over Billy. Everyone swoons every time you’re on stage.”

“But! I do die at the end. Billy makes it out, and rich as hell too.” Kurt paused him then and there to steal a kiss. It never bothered him that Blaine spent so much of his professional time kissing girls. Those girls didn’t stand a chance. These lips were all his at the end of the day. So he stole another, and still just one more, just to enjoy the sensation.

“One of these days I am going to kiss you on stage. In front of a sold out audience.” Kurt tried to give Blaine his best sultry gaze, but the other man just shifted stiffly in his arms. “Blaine?”

“I don’t know if-”

“I don’t care Lex!” a boy’s sudden shouts drew their attention from the topic. “You can’t do it! I won’t let you.”

“You don’t get to decide what I can and can’t do Alex! I’m not your property, you aren’t my dad, you don’t get to tell me what I do! And we’re going to perform Friday.”

“I’m going to tell mom and dad, we’ll see what they say about it.”

The two men couldn’t run fast enough. Alex was already bolting from the theater by the time they reached the stage. “No one can make me change my mind,” the teen was declaring. She turned to face their mentors with a smile. But there was a gloss over her eyes. Alex had clearly upset her deeply.

“Are you ok?” Kurt asked her.

“What? I’m fine. He’s just a coward. But I’m not afraid of those kids. They’re not going to stop me from my dreams.”

“The New Directions?”

“They’re horrible,” the kid at the piano mumbled. “They rule the school with an iron fist. They decide who gets into what club.”

“...How.”

“Anyone that they don’t like suddenly finds themselves, well, quite, er, well. At the receiving end of a lot of ‘innocent pranks’ and all of a sudden a ton of nasty rumors start up that destroys their social life because for some reason everyone still believes Yasmine even though we all know she only does it to further her own success in the school.”

“Report it to-” Blaine started.

“Tried that,” one of the kids who was clearly one of their dancers said. “The problem is it’s not technically ‘bullying.’ It’s just ‘innocent fun.’ No one gets hurt, no property gets damaged. Or even worse than that there’s no proof that anything happened at all. They’re experts at that.”

“No, there has to be something that can be done,” Kurt asserted. “Trust me. When I was a junior I got bullied so bad I had to leave McKinley for my own safety, since the school board decided there wasn’t enough evidence to make any real changes. But all your teachers and your principal were all there when it happened. We have to have learned something from all of that.” His fists balled up. Blaine grabbed his shoulders to try and calm him. “That wasn’t for nothing. We didn’t go through all of that for nothing.”

“Not for nothing,” Blaine whispered, grabbing hold of his left hand and pulling the fingers out of their fist. “A lot of lives were changed for the better.”

“But!”

“We’ll talk about it at tonight’s dinner. Sam and Will will be there, we can come up with a plan there.” Kurt let out a deep sigh. “Later, ok?” His voice was hushed, but he knew all the kids were still listening. “Right now, we’re teachers. And our students need our guidance if they’re going to win a spot at Friday’s showcase.” 

“...You’re right.” Kurt took a deep breath. He knew he needed to keep his cool. There was just so much wrong with it all. Supposedly McKinley had made ‘great strides’ in the bullying department since his life had been in danger all those years ago. But, no, instead it had just found a quiet acceptance that things were always going to suck and kids had stopped fighting. That wasn’t the answer. He wasn’t going to let these kids become the next casualties of high school. 

Blaine pulled a pair of stools over so they could watch as each kid demonstrated their peak ability. It was...eclectic. But workable. And it had the potential for being extremely beautiful. Not to mention unique in a school overflowing with choirs. There wasn’t a singer among them.

Though a singer would complete the piece that the kids wanted to do. A quick google search had found rudimentary parts for each instrument, and the two dancers were already coming up with a true feast for the eyes. But they’d have to give up one of the instruments in order to play the part that typically went to the vocals, and that just threw the whole thing off.

“Maybe Alex was right,” Theresa, their guitarist, stated. “This isn’t going to end well, and then Yasmine and her cronies are going to destroy all of us.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Lexi snapped as she put the theater’s violin away. “Alex is a coward who’s letting himself be dictated by a bunch of...of neanderthals, letting them put him down like he’s just some stupid dog-”

“You shouldn’t talk about your brother like that,” Kurt chastised. “You’re in different places about this, that’s fine. Everyone responds differently to these kinds of situations. We do what we have to do to live with ourselves and the world around us. There’s nothing wrong with that, so long as he isn’t hurting anyone.”

“He’s hurting me and my chances-”

“No. You’re doing just fine on your own. I’m sure we can find someone else willing to sing anyway. There seems to be a lot of suppressed talent at this school. In the meantime, I know something we can do to help is try and get you guys better access to instruments. Theresa is the only one who owns her own, right? Well, I know we can rent violins at the music store downtown, and...uhm, I know keyboards aren’t the same as a full piano but it’s something to practice on?”

“I have a piano at home,” Payton, their pianist, said. “But my parents don’t like me inviting these guys around. They think I can keep ‘better’ company.”

“Because we’re ‘beneath them,’ you know,” Lexi explained. “Poor. At least, Alex, Theresa, and me. But they’d probably let Liam and Sophie come over. We’ve just never tried.”

“If you need a safe place to practice, we can always make room in my living room,” Kurt said, not caring what his dad would say about that arrangement. This whole situation made him livid. It made him want to go somewhere and yell at someone and get something accomplished...just like his dad always did. But in this case it was a child’s parents and that was quite out of bounds. He would definitely be having a discussion with Mr. Shue about making sure there were considerations taken for the students who weren’t as well off as others though.

“We’ll be fine,” Lexi insisted. “But thank you. Thank you both. You’ve been really helpful...I don’t suppose we could meet during lunch tomorrow to work on it some more? We all pack and tend to eat out behind the gym anyway but if you’re with us we won’t get in trouble for being in the choir room.”

“You probably shouldn’t tell us that you’re breaking the rules.”

“But you know why we do. Please don’t tell?”

“I think I can keep that one to myself, but you have to stop sneaking around school during the day. Ok?”

“I only do that so I can get some practice in.”

“We’ll be working on a solution for that, don’t worry. But in the meantime I’m going to need you to stop breaking so many rules. It’s easy to defend one but beyond that and you’re looking at a whole lot of detention.”

“Ok, ok, I promise. Thank you.” Kurt smiled at the teens. It was so interesting being on this side of things. They needed some guidance to find themselves. He was their Mr. Shue. Blaine had to pull him away, waving and promising to see them tomorrow, but for now they were about to be late. Especially if they wanted to stop and get a violin rented out for Lexi. 

\--------------------

By the time they actually made it to the party it was clear they were already more than fashionably late. They were the last two to arrive.

Neither minded that though. They’d done something that needed to be done. It was just the way everyone stopped to look at them as they thanked Emma for having them and tried to join in and how it just felt like they’d somehow been the topic of discussion just before getting there and- “Is it true congratulations might be in order soon?” their former teacher said. Well that certainly cemented things.

“Maybe, the producer absolutely loved us but we haven’t heard back from the final callbacks yet,” Blaine said as he squeezed Kurt’s hand. Clearly he was in a much better mood now to be playing around like that.

“...Final callbacks for what?”

“There’s this potentially industry changing new play being put on at the Lincoln Center,” Kurt informed him, easily catching onto the game. “And we’re being considered as the leads. It’s down to two people for each role, and for once we aren’t fighting for the same one.”

“Wow! Really? That’s great! I had no idea wow! That’s amazing guys! That’s-wow I wasn’t even-” Quinn was the one who stepped up to save him. He’d been derailed so far by their news that he had no way to get back, but she was there to ground everyone in reality.

“And all of that excitement on top of a baby?” she said. It was so simple, but so very judgemental.

“We’re just getting started with that,” Blaine responded. “We can’t halt our careers while we’re figuring things out. And it’s going to cost money, so we need to keep working. Sure adoption is a bit cheaper, but we haven’t entirely ruled out surrogacy yet.”

“But you’re really going to do it?” Will asked them.

“...Yeah. We are. We really are.” That was not the answer Quinn was looking for but he didn’t care. It wasn’t her family they were creating anyway.

“You guys are going to be amazing parents. After how much I’ve seen you grow over the years, and Kurt, I’ll never forget the first time I met your dad. How he came in and made sure everything was actually done fairly - you’re so much like him. Your kid is going to be incredibly lucky to have you, both of you.” As Kurt tried to use the mentioning of his dad to his advantage, his teacher’s own kid darted by. Bright red hair and all. Will managed to scoop him up before he got too far. “And just what are you up to?”

“Playing. I’m a dragon! Rawr!”

“Do you breathe fire and everything?”

“Uhhuh.” The child puckered up his lips and blew a huff of air at his dad’s cheek.

“Well don’t burn anything ok? That’s not nice to your mom.”

“Yes, Daddy.” As soon as the kid was back on the ground he attempted to go and ‘catch fire’ to Puck. Which just resulted in a light wrestling match and quick change of game for the kid. Now it was time to play soldier.

“He’s got a lot of energy,” Blaine laughed.

“They do,” Will told him. “More energy than both their parents combined. Watch out for that.”

“I’m not going to lie, I’m a little nervous,” Kurt confessed quietly as he watched the kid. “I mean, just look at our legacy...they’re not exactly upstanding citizens.”

“I’ve heard, but Kurt, don’t measure yourself on who the New Directions are now. It’s been a lot of trial and error and we haven’t ironed out all the bugs yet, but all of this has nothing to do with you. It’s more a reflection of me than anything. And...overall the school is going pretty well.”

“Actually...we needed to talk to you about that. And Sam.”

“I know there’s a lot of concerns, especially about the lack of space for all the new groups. We’re working on securing the funding to expand the school, so that there’s more practice space for everyone. McKinley wasn’t built to be what it is now. If we get a few more wins in then we’ll get the money easy.” The two men looked to each other to gauge what to do next. The New Directions were the school winners, and the school definitely needed money. An expansion would benefit everyone.

But on the other hand if they let this go a few more years then McKinley would literally become Carmel, and all of the progress they’d made would be for nothing.

“It’s not about the size of the school Mr. Shue,” Kurt said. “Will. I mean. Anyway. The problem is the New Directions. They’re...they’re bullies. Really bad bullies. We’ve been talking to the kids and there’s people who’ve been bullied out of trying out for extracurriculars and there’s people who are even afraid to let anyone know that they’re even practicing music because they’re scared of what will happen to them.”

“...What?”

“It’s true,” Blaine backed him. “But...there’s no proof. No one’s gotten hurt, from what I understand. But...they were making fun of us on Monday. Sure there’s some teens-will-be-teens attitude to consider but they’re beyond crossing the line-”

“Actually,” Rachel butted in, Jesse at her side, having passed by and overheard them. “They’re...they’re not that bad. When you sit down and get to know them-”

“They won’t have a conversation with me without talking about the slushie incident from Junior year,” Kurt informed her. “It’s completely disrespectful and inappropriate behavior.”

“We can give them detention for that,” Will assured him. “Give me names and I can make sure they do the time.”

“The problem goes beyond that though. Alex is extremely talented, I heard him practicing. His range and his tone - he could really be something. But some girl named Yasmine-”

“She’s the captain,” Rachel informed him.

“Ok, so Captain Yasmine has a tight grip on who gets to try out and who doesn’t. She also apparently decides who tries out for orchestra.”

“Everything is open auditions,” Will insisted. “That’s a requirement. The teachers aren’t allowed-”

“Yasmine is a student. She doesn’t have that requirement. She’s got a tight grip on the school, apparently. She’s like...Quinn, when Quinn was at the height of her popularity. Everyone looks to her for the answers. Everyone listens to her. Everyone does what she says.”

“So, what, you want to take away her power?” Jesse interjected. “Take away her captaincy, suspend her from her clubs perhaps? But from what I’ve seen, she’s more than earned her positions. She is talented on many levels. Singing, piano, flute, and what four or five different kinds of actual dancing on top of whatever we call what we did in show choir. And so far she hasn’t actually broken any rules. People are just afraid of her. That’s not necessarily her fault. Unless you have proof that it is.”

“...We don’t.” Jesse was right, of course, but that didn’t mean Kurt had to like the answer.

“I don’t want to play the bad guy, but...it’s not right to take away from someone who’s doing well just because other people aren’t. If you have reason to believe that they’re not playing by the rules then yeah, find something that backs up your claims but don’t just come after someone for doing well.”

“I’ve spent time with these kids,” Rachel tried to offer to soothe things over. “They weren’t that bad today. They’re just really, really talented. And a bit spoiled, but being spoiled isn’t a crime. We’re pretty spoiled ourselves you know.” She reached up to rub Kurt’s shoulder. While she knew where they were coming from and still really agreed that the kids were out of line and disrespectful, she was completely certain that this little competition thing was the best answer. It gave everyone a chance to really explore their abilities without some national title on the line. 

“So...what do I need to do?” their former teacher interrupted. “Any detentions? Stern talking to’s?”

“We’ll wait and see,” Kurt mumbled. Blaine reached up to rub his back. “I’ll let you know before we leave what we find out.”

“I’ll hold you to that. I don’t want to find out that bullying is out of control at my school when some kid comes to me scared for his life. I want all my students to feel as safe as I can make them. I promise you, if something is going on, I’ll do everything I can to fix it.” With a firm smile, he headed off to catch his son before something could break. The kid was normally really well behaved. It was just all these people had him over-excited. Plus Puck was telling him stories and now he had an immediate need to play a whole host of new imaginary games.

A quiet fell over the four that was so thick Jesse found himself bowing out to let the long-time friends mull over their the conversation. Rachel waited for a few solid minutes to see if they had anything else to say, but it seemed they had nothing left. Not even the energy to smile. Well, she could easily fix that problem.

“Guys, can I talk to you for a minute?” Rachel asked. “In private.” She didn’t even wait for permission, grabbing each man by a hand and dragging them to the bathroom, where she then shut and even locked the door behind them.

“I’m not sure I feel comfortable with this,” Blaine joked. 

“Look, I’ve been thinking about what you said. About the whole...the whole proposal thing.”

“That was a while ago,” Kurt stated, breaking immediately out of his stupor.

“Yeah well I’ve been thinking about it ever since and you’re right. You’re completely right. I want to marry him. And if he isn’t going to propose then it’s up to me. So...I bought something.”

“No!”

“Yes.” She pulled the little box out. “I need your opinions on it. Is it too girly?” Kurt opened it carefully and examined the ring thoroughly - even going so far as to pull it out and holding it up to the light. There were some diamonds set into it but the band itself was very simple. The width was obviously for a male and there weren’t any flourishes to give it any kind of feminine edge.

“That might actually be too simple,” Blaine whispered as he leaned over. 

“When did you buy this?” Kurt asked.

“At the mall.”

“The McKinley Mall?” Blaine echoed. “Rachel if you wanted to get a ring you could have asked, we have friends-”

“I didn’t decide to do it until after we’d come here from New York and I want to do it Friday.”

“Friday.”

“Yes Friday. Before we go back. I didn’t exactly have a choice. Kurt are you ok?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. I was just thinking about...hm,” he murmured. There was definitely something to be said about jewelry. It was alright, but it could be better. But he also knew that Rachel’s options had been extremely limited. There wasn’t much out there for men’s engagement rings. He’d just have to fix that. “It’s really nice Rachel. The best you’re going to be able to get here in Lima. And that’s not a bad thing. Our rings are from here.” He held his hand up. The band still took his breath away, even if there was absolutely nothing remarkable about it. “Now, uhm, can we get out of here before people notice that we’re missing? Specifically the two of us. I prefer to be on the Shuesters’ invite list when they have parties like this and if people think we’re going to sneak off to the bathroom every time then we probably won’t be invited back again. Especially with Emma’s cleaning issues.”

Rachel pocketed the ring quickly before heading out. Blaine grabbed hold of Kurt’s hand to drag him back for a kiss before they left though. “You do like our rings, right?”

“I do,” Kurt told him. “They’re all ours. And you are all mine. For now and forever.”

“And for tonight.” With one last kiss the two ducked out, somehow managing to sneak past Santana and all her remarks. Probably thanks to Jesse taking up everyone’s attention. He had a lot to overcome to be accepted into the group, but from the looks of things he was determined to do whatever it took. For Rachel. That was good enough for the two of them.

\---------------------

The cloudless autumn sky left plenty of room for the moonlight to cast the most magnificent glow over Blaine’s skin as the man stretched and sprawled out over the bed. He was absolutely gorgeous, and the moonlight created just the right shadows over his every curve. If he were still awake, Kurt would have loved to massage every inch of that body. But as it was, Kurt didn’t have the heart to so much as move his leg so he could get to sleep too. That probably wouldn’t wake him but Kurt didn’t want to risk it. He’d passed out very quickly after their rather vigorous love making, which he’d somehow managed to initiate despite being the one who was yawning before they even got upstairs. Clearly Blaine needed his rest after all that.

Kurt brushed back the straying curls and leaned over to press one last kiss to his cheek. “I love you,” he whispered.

“Mmfm,” was the only response. The husband pulled his warmest blanket up over Blaine in an effort to keep himself from being missed, then he scrambled for some pjs. He found Blaine’s. But that was fine with him. It wasn’t as though Blaine was using them right now and besides that the smell was absolutely wonderful. Fresh washed, worn once. Perfect.

Even though he was admittedly quite tired, Kurt had far too much on his mind to just lay down and fall asleep. He needed to get the ideas out before he could rest. So he found himself downstairs with a notebook and his laptop, perusing the great wide webs for examples to get started with. There was no turning back now. He’d already e-mailed Isabelle about his newest interest. She couldn’t make it happen for him, of course, but like all good fairy godmothers she likely knew what tools he’d need to get there. He needed to rectify the lack of options in men’s rings outside of NYC. They were two solid years (and some months) into full marriage equality and still for some reason most of the options in the average store looked like they belonged in some sci-fi tech movie. To him, at least. He glanced again at his own simple dark silver band.

“Ring shopping?” his dad asked. He jumped up. He hadn’t heard them get back from their dinner date. 

“Ah, no, actually. Ring designing. I thought I might try and make a name in jewelry creation.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, actually. Who knows. We’ll see what happens.” He shifted all of his things to make room in case his dad wanted to join him. Carole gave them a wave before heading upstairs, which was all the permission Burt needed to spend some quality time with his boy. 

“Where’s Blaine?”

“Sleeping. He was really tired.” As Kurt flipped through his tabs, he stumbled on one that he’d opened up and forgotten. McKinley’s page. There was a whole section dedicated to the illustrious alumni of the school. Not just the New Directions though they had their own page, but there was all kinds of things detailing the history and how they came to be what they were. Someone had clearly put a lot of love into it. And someone else had linked Jacob’s blog from those horrible, wonderful years near the bottom. It had been abandoned once the kid had gone on to college, but it hadn’t been removed. “It’s so unfair,” he whispered.

“What’s unfair?” His dad had been lost in the pictures with him. Finn was in a lot of them. But for once that hadn’t been what Kurt was focusing on.

“Blaine and I are helping some kids who’ve been bullied out of participating in any of the school’s club put together a project of their own, and...they’re scared Dad. They’re terrified of what the new school power players are going to do to them just for daring to try and perform. And there’s nothing we can do about it! They can’t prove anything, but there’s enough of a threat that their lives are being severely affected-” He cut himself off when his father’s arm secured itself around his shoulders and pulled him close.

“It’s a sad fact of life. We can only do what we can to protect ourselves and the people we love most.” Kurt looked over to his father. Burt was definitely showing his age in that moment, being forced to relive the years when there was no guarantee if his son would make it to eighteen, and now to break the news that, no, things were not changing. “How many kids are there?”

“In the group we’re working with, we have five people, and we’re trying to get a sixth to be the singer.”

“Six? Maybe there’s strength in numbers, if they’ve all been targeted.”

“Dad, there were twelve of us in the New Directions constantly getting it from all sides and since there was no proof no one could do anything to stop it. And it turns out that zero tolerance bullying policies don’t change much when there’s still no proof bullying has occurred. He said she said isn’t proof enough to expel someone, especially good students that are otherwise doing everything right, according to their records. And on top of that, they’re good at what they do. It’s not like they haven’t earned everything they’ve gotten, but they’ve also rigged the system to get there and it’s just such a mess!”

“I hate to have to say it, but...Life isn’t clean cut. There’s no easy choices. Things aren’t always going to be fair.” He massaged at his son’s shoulders for a moment. “We just need to do the best we can.”

“You’re actually not the only person to say that to me this week.”

“Well, it’s the truth.” Burt squeezed him a little tighter. “Is there anything else you want to talk about while we have the time?”

“Nothing I need your great wisdom for.” Kurt rested his head on his dad’s shoulder for a moment. “I miss you a lot sometimes.”

“Maybe I can come to New York to visit you in a few weeks?”

“YES! I mean. Yeah.” 

“I can't wait. Now, show me what you’re working on.”


	8. Don't Write Yourself Off Yet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title Song: The Middle, by Jimmy Eat World  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please allow me a moment to shamelessly plug my other current on-going story, "This is Halloween." I'm slowly posting it over the course of the year and hoping to finish it around Halloween time, but as for right now it's something a bit different for me and I'd be very interested in seeing if it's working or not. Plus I'm about to post chapter 4 and that's probably my favorite chapter in the whole piece so far (I've written up to chapter 13 so who's to say what happens beyond that).

“Ok so it’s settled-we are definitely getting all the kids to sing Don’t Stop with us at the showcase,” Rachel announced to the entire group. They were supposed to just be getting coffee before another day in the battlefield that was McKinley. Of course Rachel had immediately turned it into a meeting, not unlike those meetings years ago when they were trying to foil Mr. Shue’s attempts to make absolute certain they ruined any chance they had at a good high school life by doing disco. In front of the whole school. Disco had been fine in the privacy of the choir room.

“You’re more and more like Mr. Schue every day,” Santana grumbled. “That song is overplayed and overdone.”

“But it’s a New Directions staple. Nothing gets everyone smiling more than our signature song. Admit it. You still smile every time it comes on.” Santana couldn’t argue with that. She actually still broke out singing it randomly sometimes. Usually in the shower.

“Fine. But I refuse to be stuck making it tradition to sing every single year. That’ll get annoying.”

“No, just this year. Since there’s not a whole lot of New Directions spirit in McKinley anymore. Even the actual New Directions, talented though they are, don’t really seem to get the essence of what we were all about.”

“Getting slushied and laughed at on the daily?” Mercedes asked her.

“Being different by being true to who we were,” Kurt intercepted. Blaine squeezed his hand. “And finding the other people who were brave enough to be themselves too.”

“Most of the time,” Quinn sighed.

“All of the time. We just exposed different parts of who we were.”

“So the whole overalls and steel toe boots was what part of you again?”

“The part that lives to make his dad proud.”

“...You’re right. You’re right.” Even when she’d been ‘Skank Quinn,’ that had just been an expression of a part of her that she struggled with. The part that was a mother, but not a mom. The part that might never be ready to be a mom though she so badly wanted to be one. All that turmoil had poured out in rather horrifying ways. But with the help of all her friends she’d made it through everything.

All their phone alarms went off at the same time. They all had places to be, students to meet, projects to assist with. Basically a whole school to take over despite the fact that it was still supposed to be a proper high school with things that would be needed in all college majors like math and science and english. But it was just one week of incredible fun.

“I really think you guys should come teach the New Directions today,” Rachel said.

“I thought that was what you were supposed to be doing,” Blaine replied. He was not eager to go back in there. Not after the way they’d treated Kurt. He wouldn’t be able to keep his cool if they mouthed off again.

“I can make myself busy with other things. There’s a theater class that Quinn is working with today. Quinn and I don’t spend a whole lot of time together so this is a good opportunity to catch up a bit.” Neither man made eye contact with her. They had worked out a whole plan to spend another day with the boys’ choir and had no intention of deviating from it. “Please? Give them another chance. I know you guys have a lot you can teach them if you just give them one more chance. Sure they’re a bit sassy but...so were we, Kurt. We’ve done some pretty nasty things.”

“Mostly you did some pretty nasty things,” he reminded her.

“You helped. Or at least didn’t do anything to stop it. That makes you just as guilty.”

“...Fine.” He could feel Blaine’s death grip, so he freed his hand. “I’ll give them a chance.”

“Blaine?”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Kurt assured him. “The War-Duly Noteds would miss you a lot if you didn’t teach their class today. No one will blame you for spending more time with them.”

“Kurt if you’re working with the New Directions just because-”

“No.” His voice was stern. The insinuation got under his skin. He was not jealous. He was happy for Blaine. “I’m doing it because sometimes...the most talented kids can be the most annoying people you will ever meet, but if you give them a chance then they will surprise you. Rachel did.”

“Hey!” she snapped, giving his arm a light slap.

“Or sometimes they turn out to be Sebastians,” Blaine grumbled.

“Even Sebastian turned around at the end,” Kurt replied.

“After someone almost died. And there’s still Hunter to account for. And most of Vocal Adrenaline, depending on the year.”

“Jesse was in Vocal Adrenaline. He turned out fine.”

“But while he was with them he led the Vocal Adrenaline tradition of egging people. I’ve seen the videos. Those kids in that choir have seen the videos and I’m pretty sure they’ve decided to emulate them in every way possible-”

“They’re just teenagers,” Rachel snapped back.

“What about those kids who destroyed Sheldon’s car? Being a teenager does not excuse that kind of behavior.”

“And these kids haven’t done that sort of thing! People talk about them bullying everyone all the time but no one has any proof. They just assume it’s them because they have an attitude but I dare you to name one person who _didn’t_ have a bad attitude at least some of the time as a teenager!”

“Did you need proof to know that the way people treated you in high school was wrong? Did you need proof of actual injury to...to trust that Kurt could get hurt or-or killed? Kurt come on back me up here!”

“I’m on Rachel’s side,” he said, biting back his agitation. They had been quick to judge because of their own experiences, but these kids weren’t the same kids from eight years ago when all of this had begun. Nothing was the same as it was back then. He’d seen countless campaigns against bullying in schools (they’d even talked about lending their assistance to them in their free time...which they never seemed to have). Half of the New Directions treated the other half horribly at the beginning just for the sake of popularity. There was a great wide world out there full of people who would run their mouths and say stupid things just to feel cool. It made them feel strong. But there was nothing illegal about talking, even when the talk was cruel. Looking back at their first impression he wasn’t even that frustrated with the kids anymore. Not compared to the way Santana had been mouthing off just ten minutes ago. No, those kids deserved a second chance. Being an adult now, he could look back and think about all sides of what happened back then and make the choice to believe in those students. “I can’t blame you from being mad over the things they said and how they behaved, but we don’t know them. I for one want to try one more time to change that. They could just be a group full of Santana-Rachel-Jesses.”

“Or they could be like those other kids, the ones when we were pulling the New Directions back together. You remember that big scandal at Juilliard last year! Those were Vocal Adrenaline kids!”

“And if they are, then maybe we can make all the difference! I mean who’s to say how Rachel would have turned out without us.”

“I would never have-” she started.

“You sent a girl to a crack house because you were jealous of her, Rachel.”

“I’d never have egged the competition. That’s just low. And I would never, ever have-”

“Who’s to say you wouldn’t have? What if you’d had all the power and popularity these kids have? The point is, they need guidance. They need us to believe that they can be better than they are. And that doesn’t always just mean in their musical talents. And I’m going to give them a second chance.” He shot Blaine a glare. Of course Blaine didn’t have to join him, but he needed Blaine to support him in his choice. He didn’t get that.

“Then don’t come crying to me when they show their true colors,” Blaine snapped, turning and stalking off. He couldn’t forget that afternoon, all he and Rachel had been doing was going to get coffee. And those kids had just egged them. Adults - teachers. They hadn’t even been students anymore. It had been so humiliating. But the worst part was how unashamed those kids were. And then when those two had gotten into Juliard they’d turned around and pulled the same kind of antics there. At Juliard! It was the most disrespectful thing he could have imagined.

He tried so very hard not to look back. It was nearly impossible. He managed to steal the slightest of glances as he shuffled into Sam’s car. That was a bad idea. Kurt was livid. Blaine could tell by the way he was standing, arms crossed with his face turned away. He felt bad for fighting with Kurt, but as much as he loved the man he was being blind and naive. But...he could definitely apologize for getting so snappy.

Blaine quickly pulled out his phone to do that. Via text. That way Kurt could read it when he was ready.

Kurt replied with a catty ‘Maybe you should stick to the same-old same-old Warbler stuff. That’s what you’re good at.’

“Well fine!” Blaine yelled at his phone.

“Woah, bro,” Sam said. “Uhm...everything ok?”

“Yes...no. I mean. I pissed Kurt off. And then I said something really stupid. But he didn’t have to be so...so...Ugh. I’m sorry Sam but I just don’t think there’s a good bone in those kids’ bodies.”

“Uhm...the New Directions?”

“Yeah. I know you’re trying but...they’re horrible. The more I learn of them-”

“You’re right. Blaine, they’re monsters. Everyone’s been debating it but...I’m the one who’s teaching them. I hate to talk about it but they’re horrible. They’re awful. They’re rude, and I’m pretty sure they broke our Nationals trophy. We put it back together so no one would notice but it was in pieces just before auditions and...I’m almost positive it was them.”

“Will Kurt be safe teaching them today?”

“He should be. They don’t act up that much during class time. Backtalk sure, but Kurt can give them detention if they get out of hand. And that won’t affect their long-term performance because you guys will be back in New York next week.”

“I don’t want to be the bad guy here, but...McKinley is becoming a sell out. Backing these guys just because they’re winning and that’ll bring in money? Sure, the school needs money. I get it. But not at this cost.”

“I’m with you. But the school board goes above you and me and even Will. They want the New Directions to keep winning. The school hasn’t done this well since the Cheerios won their...what was it, seven straight wins? Now we’re winning at Cheerleading and Show Choir and we have a really strong group of artists too, not to mention our jazz band is doing exceptional things...the board wants to see this keep going. If it doesn’t, we could end up losing our status and having everything flipped around again.”

“I swear this school district is the most bipolar thing I’ve ever met. And I live sandwiched between Kurt and Rachel. Between the two of them you’d think I’d seen it all.”

“Kurt’s not that bipolar.”

“But most of his fashion friends are. And don’t get me started on Elliot’s boyfriend. I really miss Ohio sometimes. At least things were kind of stable here.”

“If you want stability then New York is not the city for you.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love New York. I love my life, I love Kurt, I love everything. I just...miss the simple things sometimes. Our Junior year was perfect you know?”

“You realize that having kids means nothing will ever be simple again, right?”

“...Yeah. But I’m ready for that kind of challenge. I can’t wait for it. Can you imagine? A little baby with Kurt’s big eyes?” He dropped his head back against the seat, just letting himself drift away on the dream.

“I thought you were settling for adoption.”

“Er, yeah. I didn’t mean his literal eyes-”

“Yes you did. Blaine you need to tell him what you want. Before you end up going down a path that’s not what's best for both of you.”

“I don’t care if our baby has our genes or not. I really don’t. I just...you know...it would be so beautiful. I can already see it, this adorable little baby with Kurt’s eyes and maybe his chin, if it’s a boy, but definitely his cheeks. Do you know how cute that would be?”

“Even if you get a surrogate there’s no guarantee the baby would have his eyes. Blue’s recessive.”

“But the shape Sam. His eyes are so bright and beautiful and, and...there just has to be another child on this planet that has those eyes. It just has to happen” His friend laughed at his childlike enthusiasm as he turned into the McKinley lot.

“I know, I know. Kurt is physically perfect and every man in New York is jealous of you for snagging such a catch. But hey, maybe you won’t need a surrogate. Maybe you’ll find a teenage mom with big eyes in need of two caring men like you guys.”

“Ah, we’re swearing off teenage moms. We don’t want to repeat Quinn.”

“Good point. Whatever happens, I’m sure things will work out. Now...I have a meeting to get to. And I know you have a class to help out with. If you can handle teaching with gym with Puck.”

“I can handle it.”

“We’ll see.”

\------------------------  
The morning had gone well enough. Kurt and Blaine still weren’t talking as they marched onto the stage for their practice with the underdogs. Well, ‘weren’t talking’ meant in terms of addressing their issues. “The boys are going to kill it for the showcase,” Blaine baited Kurt.

“I bet they are,” Kurt retorted shortly.

“How were the little monsters?”

“They were great! Fantastic. Their performance is going to be better than anything we’ve ever seen.” As true as that was, that was the only fantastic thing about those kids. Kurt opted not to mention that he’d had to hand out detention to the entire class. “Don’t call them little monsters. They’re our students.”

“They really didn’t give you any trouble?”

“They’re teenagers, they gave us typical teen trouble but it’s nothing we can’t handle. They’re fine. They just need some guidance. And Sam is handling that just fine.” There it was. The cornering. Bringing Sam’s teaching abilities into this meant Blaine couldn’t counter. Well, he could, but not without saying something horrible about his best friend in some backhanded way. He already knew Sam was struggling with the fact that he didn’t seem to have any control over these kids.

So he quieted down and pushed into the auditorium. They couldn’t argue in front of their students anyway. Though apparently that wasn’t going to be a problem - their students weren’t there. “They must still be getting lunch.”

“Hm.” Kurt leaned against the piano, Blaine sat down on a stool. They watched each other carefully. Kurt couldn’t believe Blaine wasn’t willing to give these kids a chance. Blaine couldn’t believe Kurt was so gullible. He’d heard more stories today from the Duly Noteds. Bullies had no business being rewarded for their behaviors, which was exactly what was happening in this school. Despite there being a supposed zero tolerance policy. It was a shame on the Dalton legacy.

Well, McKinley wasn’t Dalton. Never had been, never would be. But it was a Dalton policy and it was being done wrong, clearly.

Kurt folded his hands in front of himself, conveniently letting his eyes trace everywhere on the stage except over to where Blaine was sitting. He could be so cute when he was agitated sometimes. Blaine turned his eyes away. Kurt turned his eyes on Blaine. He knew it was hard to have faith in the New (new new new...new) New Directions, but Jesse had gotten him thinking the night before, and then all through that morning. Rachel had been horrible, in her own rights, and most of the original crew had been made up of people who had dedicated a fair amount of time to tearing each other apart. If not for Quinn’s jealousy the cheerleaders never have joined and of course that would have been a very messy catfight, and he still wasn’t entirely sure how Puck had wound up joining. But it had taken months before Kurt was safe from the dumpster even after Puck had joined. As for Kurt, well, he had tried to destroy Rachel a time or two himself.

It was easy to forget sometimes that they’d been pretty cruel too. Yes, often to each other, but they weren’t blameless. They’d had to grow up. And even now they were still pretty bratty. Case in point - that look Blaine was giving him now.

No wait, that look wasn’t smugness. It was fondness. Kurt offered him a little smile. He was still agitated though. But Blaine was horribly cute over there. Maybe it was how his hair was breaking from it’s mold a bit. There was a stray curl threatening to fall down over his face.

Just as Kurt was about to go over and help him put it back in its place, Lexi ran onto the stage. “You’re here-good, please you have to come to the lunchroom!” There was no hesitation. The urgency in her voice had them both running. They expected a catastrophe. Maybe a ‘We’ve Got the Beat’ level foodfight. What they saw when they arrived wasn’t quite so easy to point out. Everything looked normal enough.

“Since when is Yasmine Theresa’s friend,” Blaine said, his eyes scanning over the lunch table. Kurt realized what he was pointing out. Every one of the underdogs was planted between a pair of New Directions. Eyes down. Eating lunch. Clearly they had no intentions of making it to practice today. “What’s going on here?”

“We were heading to practice when they stopped us,” Lexi told them. “Everyone’s too scared to tell them no.”

“Why?” Kurt asked.

“Trust me. Upset them and your high school life is horrible. Worse than it has been so far. We’ve heard rumors of ‘slushie-geddon.’ Where they pour vats of rainbow slushies down on us in front of the whole school.”

“That’s not even possible. Where would they even set that up? Don’t worry.” Kurt walked over to the lunch table, forcing a smile onto his face.

“Good afternoon Mr. Hummel-Anderson,” Courtney said with a voice dripping with sacchrine sweetness. They were completely unperturbed.

“Good afternoon. I’m here to talk to Theresa, Liam, and Sophie. And Alex.” He glanced over to Lexi’s brother. The boy just glared back at him. “I thought we were going to have practice?”

“They changed their minds.”

“Thank you, Courtney. I need to talk to them now.” Yasmine poked at Liam’s side.

“Go on, buddy, tell him,” she said. Kurt watched Liam’s hands curl up into fists.

“We’re just...too busy,” the kid pushed out.

“Too busy?” Kurt said. “It’s just a few days. After Friday the showcase will be over. And you were all telling me last night about how much this would mean for you! The chance to work on your skills, so you can get into the colleges you want, and follow your dreams!”

“One performance isn’t going to make a big difference,” Yasmine cut back in. “It takes a whole resume of extracurriculars, and we’ve already seen that you guys just aren’t up for that challenge just yet. Maybe in time-”

“Or maybe it’s time to start a new club! Try something different. You guys aren’t here to make another choir, you’re making something more eclectic. Your own band, it looks like.”

“We already have bands,” Courtney said. “They didn’t make it there either.”

“Enough! Courtney, Yasmine, I’m not talking to you-”

“No, you’re talking to us,” Alex said, standing. “And we’ve decided that we don’t want to do this!”

“I do,” Sophie said. “I mean, maybe not long term in a club, but just this one performance, it’d be fun. I don't even want to be a performer when I grow up. I want to get into preventative medicine. But I want to have fun while I'm still a kid.” She stood up and walked over to Lexi’s side, lunch tray in hand. “So it's fine if I suck. This is just for fun.” Kurt had a feeling that this had nothing to do with artistic quality, but any reason to get these kids going was a good one.

“We just don't want you to embarrass yourselves,” one of the other New Directions piped up.

“We won't,” Lexi snapped. “And even if we do, it's our choice to get up there and perform. Everyone else in the school is going to be putting their best out there, why not us too? Come on guys.”

“Lexi this is ridiculous!” Alex hissed, trying not to draw attention. “The whole school will be watching. Sure it might be fun to perform but do you really want that to be our reputation? Whatever happens, it...could turn out bad. And then we have to live with that for the rest of high school.”

“We’re really just looking out for you,” Yasmine insisted.

“We don’t need or want your help!” Lexi retorted. “Alex, fine. You want to betray us, whatever. You do that. But I’m not going to let all of them decide who I am. High school is going to end. Just look at our teachers. I’m going to do what I love. And it’d mean alot to me to do it with my friends beside me.” That was the last straw. The other kids joined her immediately.

“Lexi!”

“Lexi’s a big girl, she can make her own decisions,” Kurt stated, quite curtly. Alex brought his palms down on the table hard enough to make someone’s milk fall over. He stormed off before anyone could stop him. Kurt rolled his eyes and turned to the kids he had. “Shall we get to practice?”

“I’m going after Alex,” Blaine stated. “You get started without me.”

“Chasing him down isn’t going to help.”

“But I have to try.” Blaine knew that fear. The need to hide, and to conform. Not to be the proud odd peacock unashamed to be hanging out in a duck pond. Lexi was more like Kurt, but Blaine knew Alex was more like himself. He followed the teen outside. “You going to cut school now?” he called out. “You realize you could get expelled for that.”

“No! I’m-I just needed some fresh air. It’s not a crime.”

 

“Uh-huh. Can we sit down and talk?”

“I’m done with the lectures. Be your own unique unicorn self! Don’t let anyone else tell you who to be! It’s a load of feel-good sparkly garbage. Most of us, if we’re lucky, will get a good job here and be able to have some hobbies on the side. Those of us who are smart will be able to go to a college somewhere else in the state, maybe one will go somewhere else, and we’ll all end up chasing ‘practical majors’ because unlike you we can’t actually afford to waste time at college. We’re going to have lots of bills to pay very quickly and last I checked the performing arts still doesn’t pay well. And on top of that we have to deal with this crap in high school before we even get to leave for college, and what are the odds that these kids will go to the same school as us and it’ll just keep continuing on? And on top of that all there’s also how competitive the performance industry is and I’m not going to become one of _them_ -”

“OK! Ok. Alex. Trust me, I understand you. Believe me. I’ve been where you are, and everyone I know, they’ve been there too. We’ve been slushied, ridiculed, laughed at, pushed down the stairs, thrown in dumpsters, egged-”

“And I’m sick of everyone always comparing us to you! We’re supposed to look up to you, be better than you, and be you all at the same time. Every single one of us. It’s always ‘Rachel Berry this’ ‘Mercedes Jones that’ and oh did I tell you about Kurt and Blaine lately?”

“I...I’m sorry. I didn’t realize...but, I just want you to know, I know. What you’re going through. We’re not the same, but I know how hard this is. I know how terrifying it can be-”

“No you don’t! Last I checked, you didn’t watch your sister get beaten up over something you did!” Blaine stopped short. Sister, being Lexi. The brave ringleader who wasn’t backing down despite danger staring her right in the face. “She almost lost the ability to play the violin. Her arm was messed up really bad. It took over a year of therapy before she could play again. Out of all of us, she has the biggest reason not to do this! I can’t watch her get hurt again. I just can’t do it. And just...just stand by…”

“Fighting with her isn’t going to change her mind, believe me. Some people aren’t afraid of the bullies, even when they could get seriously hurt. Some people will just run right into the situation regardless of if they stand a chance of coming out unharmed or not if they believe in what they’re doing. And...the person that loves them most isn’t going to be able to change that. That’s who they are.”

“This is another it happened to me story isn’t it.”

“When we were in college, Kurt ran into a fight to help someone. He really could have been killed, with his head injuries, and how cold it was then. And he’d do it again. I know it’s not the same, but…”

“You get it.”

“Yeah.”

“How do you handle it?”

“I support him. I believe in him, I trust him. I make sure I’m easy to contact, and at the top of his speed dial, and that there’s an easily accessible note on his phone to call me in case of an emergency. So basically there’s no way to miss my contact information. And more important than that, I make sure he knows he can always count on me to be there for him even if I’m not exactly on board with running into a fight.”

“But if she goes through with it-”

“She’s her own person Alex. And from what you told me, she was the one who got hurt. She knows the risks, and she’s deciding to go through with this anyway. She made that choice. And so did all your friends. You don’t have to perform with them, but you have to respect their decision.”

“What if...I want to? Perform. With them?”

“Then what’s stopping you?”

“I’m scared. I couldn’t do it. Have my arm broken, end up like that. I’m scared of that happening to me. And I say it’s because I don’t really want to perform, I say I’d rather do something else, it’s more practical but that’s not true. I don’t necessarily want to be an actor, or at least not a lead, but I love singing. I want to do something with that. And I want to be singing now. I want to be up on that stage. I want to be leading the New Directions! I want to be good.”

“And you want everyone to know it?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“Don’t worry, that’s a pretty typical performer trait. If we wanted to go unnoticed we’d, I don’t know, record our voices but let someone else use them? I’d say wear a mask but Sia’s got that covered.” Alex laughed a bit. It was good to see him loosening up, finally. “Do you mind if I ask...about that incident? Who attacked Lexi?”

“Oh, that was at our old school. We transferred here because we’d heard it ranked number one in the state, er, well, I guess last in the state? For bullies and problems with bullies. But I guess that was just an image.”

“No, it wasn’t supposed to be. But if they can’t prove anything is going on, or if people aren’t making a storm, I know that a lot of schools won’t even notice. Things are better here though. I know it doesn’t seem like it but Mr. Schue watched all of us go through this, so he should know what to look for. And you have teachers you can trust. Sam, er, Mr. Evans? I know he runs the New Directions but I promise you can always count on him.”

“I really wish they’d just leave us alone.”

“Talent can be threatening, I guess. They all want to be number one, but you’re a clear winner so they’re going to sabotage you.”

“Right? And there’s nothing anyone can do about it. It’s like they’re bred to be good at this game, since they’ve been doing it so long, their older siblings did it, and I bet their parents did it too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Carmel people are ruthless and have to be the best, and will be the best at any cost?”

“Carmel people?”

“The New Directions are all transfers from the Carmel district...I thought everyone knew that.”

“No...no that’s definitely news to me...I thought they hated Carmel?”

“They do. Because ‘Carmel kids’ are stupid and get kicked out of Juilliard. They’re rebranding.”

“By stealing our name! Ok, no. Alex, let’s go to practice. If you want to, I mean. Let’s get to practice. You and your friends focus on putting on the best performance you can. I have a couple of people to talk to.”

They hurried to the auditorium. Everyone was just starting their song from the top. Alex paused, looking over to his teacher for permission. Blaine gave him a gentle push. He stepped right on in with the words. It wasn’t perfect, but it was just a first try. And for a first try it sounded really good.

“Kurt-”

“How!” Kurt whispered.

“You’d be surprised what a little bit of patience will get you,” Blaine grumbled. “For being willing to give the New Directions a second chance, you sure did write off Alex quick.” He didn’t mean to be catty about it, but the more he learned the more he was sure that he was right.

“Seriously? This is not the time. Ok guys!”

“Wait! There’s something we need to talk about-”

“We can fight later Blaine. Right now we’re teachers.”

There wasn’t much in the way of later, however. When the bell rang, the two men were immediately bombarded by their friends so they could go work on getting things set up. They had a lot of help from the art class students but there was still a lot that needed done. Kurt was too busy to talk. He was in his element and there was no room to distract him.

Everyone was too busy, except for a certain select group of overconfident students that were absolutely sure of their spot at the showcase.  
\-----------  
There were six colors in the modern gay flag. Red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple. There were also, conveniently, six common flavors of slushie sold at McKinley. Cherry, lemon, orange, apple, blue raspberry, and grape. When combined they created both the most disgusting flavor known to man and also most possibly the most disgusting color.

Not to mention they were all debilitatingly cold. Blaine helped peel Kurt’s ruined shirt off as Sam and Mercedes hunted down towels to wrap him up in. Their fearless leader Schuester was already hot on the case to discover who had committed this horrific act.

No one had seen it coming. And no one had seen who had done it. There wasn't even a hint. But Blaine knew. He tried not to say it, but he knew who it was.

“You were right,” Kurt said for him as he leaned over the sink and tried desperately to comb the ice from his hair.

“What?”

“I gave them detention, I foiled their plans to stop our kids-”

“Our kids?”

“Our students. We stopped them from keeping our students down. You were right Blaine. You were completely right and I just...I just keep thinking…” The man paced around, letting the slush drip all over the floor.

“Thinking what?”

“What if that’s our baby’s future? We aren’t even parents yet! But look at our legacy, look at what we created! Monsters. These kids have everything we wanted, and parents always say they want to give their kids everything they never had, and I know that’s what I want, and look what becomes of that! Monsters!”

“Kurt!” Blaine grabbed him by his shoulders. The man was trembling from the cold. “Kurt...here, lean over. Let me help you clean up.” He turned on the warm water and guided Kurt’s head. His man needed to relax, and Blaine knew all the tricks to help him. He was gentle on Kurt’s hair, having learned years ago the little things that he liked. He loved when he had a chance to play with the hair. Ever since the alley incident he had felt a certain sort of connection whenever he could wash Kurt’s hair. It was just a little way that he could take care of his man, and he was good at it too. He massaged like a pro. At least that was what Kurt always said and given that he was picky about who he went to for cuts Blaine was inclined to believe him. “You were right too,” he whispered when he turned the water off.

“No I wasn’t. I’ve been wrong all day. You got Alex to join us! And I just gave up on him.”

“Shh. I’m sorry I said that.”

“You were right. And I’m going to be a horrible father-”

“No. Kurt, you were frustrated, sure, and I know you can do better, but you and I both know you didn’t give up on him. You just needed some time to cool off.” They fell silent, leaving only the sound of the water trailing off of Kurt’s head and circling its way down the drain. Blaine licked his lips. Kurt was still shivering. “They’re Vocal Adrenaline,” Blaine found himself blurting.

“What?”

“The New Directions. Alex told me they all transferred here from Carmel. They are Vocal Adrenaline. Which means that that is not our baby, they are not our legacy.” He tried to offer a smile as Kurt looked up at him. “And...you’re right, about the potential they have. Since we know how Jesse turned out, there is hope, but it’s not our fault. They were raised in an environment that only accepts winning, where they must win at all costs, and that’s not what we left behind. We didn’t fail.”

“But...we kind of did, and if we don’t do everything we can for these students then we’ll have failed them.”

“They’re old enough now to have consequences for their actions. If this bites them, they can only blame themselves.”

“But they’re still kids, and we’re still their teachers.”

“And we’re going to do the best we can. They may basically be monsters, but you’re right - we can’t just give up. And...you know, sometimes punishment is because we care. Sometimes, no matter how good they are at something, they just haven’t earned it. Being part of the New Directions is about more than just being a really good performer. And...and one bad batch of kids that we’ve known for four days doesn’t make you a bad dad. Kurt, the way you pulled our kids together, your optimism, the fact that you really want those kids to succeed even after this...you’re going to be great.” Kurt straightened up. Water trailed down over his shoulders, making streams that Blaine’s eyes subconsciously followed. He grabbed some paper towels. “Aren’t these your favorite pants?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nothing we can do about it now.” Kurt tried to rub some of it off but it really was beyond hope. “We might be able to get it dry cleaned, but I don’t have high hopes.”

“Everyone decent?” they heard Quinn through the door. Blaine slipped over and cracked the door open.

“Do you have towels?” he asked.

“An old blanket from my trunk. There aren’t any towels in the school, apparently.” Blaine accepted the gift. Kurt grabbed it from him greedily, eager to try and chase off his chill. He could feel the trembles deep in his muscles and it was hard to curl his fingers, and he was not in the mood for a trip to the hospital for hypothermia over a slushie-ing. “There’s something you need to know. No one else wants to tell you, but I think it’s best that it comes from us.”

“What?”

“It’s on YouTube.”

“It-no.”

“I’m sorry. We found it ten minutes ago. It went up immediately.” She peered through the door at her former classmate. “Are you ok?” They locked eyes for a brief moment.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now,” he whispered. “Quinn...can you get someone to go to the community theater? Please? Make sure the kids we’ve been working with are still heading there, that they’re ok?”

“Maybe get someone who’s really good at instilling inspiration?” she asked. “I think I have some people in mind. Unique and Kitty just got into town for Friday. And I’m pretty sure I saw that football gay you and Rachel found.”

“Spencer.”

“Right. I’ll see what I can do. But you’ll owe me a favor. Because when I’m through with these kids they will never question their greatness ever again.” She offered a gentle smile to the men. Despite her disagreement with their decision, she did think they’d make great dads. Especially given how hard they were working for these teens. Unlike the fatherhood thing, though, she definitely was able to help out with these kids. “Watch out for Puck and Sam. They’re working on getting you dry clothes. It isn’t going to be pretty.”

“Can I keep the blanket until tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’ll be fine. As long as it doesn’t get out on the internet I can live with Blaine seeing me unfashionable just once. Now, please hurry?”

“Ok, ok. You get home and get some rest.” She pulled the door shut as she left them. Kurt was quick to shimmy out of his pants. Blaine watched as he tried to run them under water.

“Kurt?”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“You were just humiliated in front of your alma mater, all your friends, and now it’s up on the internet for all future employers to enjoy?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Kurt!”

“What?”

Blaine grabbed his husband by his shoulders and turned him so he could look in the man’s eyes. “Please, don’t bottle up your feelings about this.”

“Blaine, I’m not bottling. Dwelling just isn’t going to change things.”

“Kurt, I know you. This is going to simmer and explode and I’d rather not see that happen to you over this.”

“I’m not bottling!” The hands holding him in place tensed up, so he reached out to curl a finger into a belt loop and tug Blaine just a little closer. “Yes, I’m mad. I’m upset. I really want to just curl up in bed until dinner but I know I have to go do some damage control and we really should get to that theater as soon as I change clothes-”

“Ah-ah. First, we. You don’t have to do damage control alone. Second, we can ask Quinn to see if we can meet the kids for a quick dress rehearsal after dinner because I’m not letting you go anywhere like this. You’re too cold. You’ll get sick. And I love you but you’re a grouch when you’re sick.” He yanked Kurt in for a kiss. “And the quickest way to warm anyone up will still take a while.”

“Oh so that’s what we’re doing instead of being responsible good teachers and putting our students first?”

“They’re in good hands. Besides, it’s in everyone’s best interest that we get you warmed up.”

“I see. When you put it that way we sound absolutely nothing like our old choir teacher.” Plus, technically they were planning on going home for that. And they weren’t actually teachers more as special guests with a lot of privilege.


	9. Everyone You Want to Be Probably Started Out Like Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry this took so long, I've been having some technology troubles. This is the second to last Lima chapter. Almost done with the saga of the Vocal Directions!  
> Songs:  
> Title: Loser Like Me (Glee original song)  
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SBYJBtxLsSI  
> Performed songs, in order:  
> Confident (Demi Lovato)  
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=udLuRz9nP6A  
> Cake by the Ocean (DNCE)  
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PAzH-YAlFYc  
> Outcast (Glee original song)  
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l8dG145knpc  
> Exes and Ohs (Elle King)  
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6nXI6r6aCoU  
> Don't Stop Believing (by Journey, covered a million times by Glee, linked is the 5th season cover)  
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mskgyfE6RhM

“I actually think if Sue was still around, this would warrant some of her old complaints,” Will laughed as he looked over his school. It was a circus, plain and simple. Every room and hallway was filled with presentations and the teachers and families were just having a grand old time. “I can’t wait to explain this to the school board.”

“Elementary schools have fun days from time to time, why can’t teenagers?” Puck returned.

“We’d be better off going with the educational aspect,” Quinn insisted. “The students are completely responsible for putting together presentations and presenting them, it builds teamwork and public speaking skills and prepares them for a tough job market where they will have to sell themselves to their future employers.”

“I like that,” Will told her. “Do you want to talk to them for me?” It was all in good fun, of course. They already had permission...for a pep rally. This was just a day long fiesta of a pep rally. “I'm kidding,” he added carefully after noticing the deer in the headlights look he got from his former student. “They’re going to love this. The kids are showing off everything they've learned. I had a few proposals for science projects that I approved - they're over by the science classrooms and I have got to say they look really cool.”

“Science projects?” Rachel half-scoffed.

“Not everyone is an artist or performer,” Blaine said gently as he looked out over their beautiful, glorious, super artsy chaos. Normally he liked a lot more order but there was something perfect about what he was seeing. Maybe it was that smile on Kurt’s face as he surveyed an improv group that were proudly decked in the colors of the rainbow. They called themselves ‘the Skittles.’ It was adorable. Every part of it. But mostly Kurt’s joy as they played out an interestingly familiar love story. Maybe the backwards handholding was just a quirky coincidence. Or maybe that had been the prompt Kurt had given them for their improv story. “I’ve gotta go before Kurt explodes. See you guys at lunch.” Hopefully his dearly beloved wouldn’t mind going over and checking out those science projects.

Blaine was extremely curious about how this performing arts focused community school was treating all the other kids that weren’t here for the theater or the music or whatnot. Hopefully Rachel's attitude wasn't an indication as to the rest of the school. Technically math and science and all of that was still vital (not to mention required by law).

There wasn’t much time for that. The two barely had a few minutes to glance over the amazing experiments - one using science and math to break down the art of dancing that just blew their minds away - before Rachel came over the intercom calling all alumni to the gym to evaluate those who were trying for a spot at that evening’s showcase. “When are we supposed to enjoy everyone else?” Kurt complained.

“After lunch? There won’t be any judging after we announce the winners.”

“But do you really think people are still going to be on their A game then?”

“Sure! If we’re interested enough I’m sure they’ll want to show off their talents. It always feels good having people care about what you’re doing. And most of these people aren’t here for the competition to begin with. And all the ones who are will be showing off during judging.”

“True, you are right.”

“Aren’t I always?”

“Just half the time.” He grabbed his husband’s hand as they entered the gym. As soon as the two stepped over the thresh hold, though, they both had to take pause to let the sight sink in. Everyone wasn’t there - a handful of notable absences tugged at their hearts - but most were. All lined up in the bleachers with the booklets Tina and Rachel had worked hard to put together the night before so that the voting could begin.

“Wow,” Blaine gasped. “Sugar looks like she’s doing well.”

“Sugar’s rich, of course she looks good. But look at Jake!” Jake and Ryder were laughing about who knew what, and both of them were dressed up in outfits that Kurt would price at well over three hundred dollars a piece. Jake had followed in his brother’s footsteps after high school so dressing nice was a requirement for him. Ryder on the other hand was being scouted for the NFL last they heard.

“This is what it means to be part of our legacy,” Rachel squealed as she shoved herself between her two favorite men. “Did you see Jane?”

“Not yet.” Kurt scanned the bleachers, taking count. They were only missing three or four. Rory, of course. They’d invited him but living across an ocean made visitation difficult. Alistair was nowhere to be seen, but Kurt had heard a few things about that which made him hold Blaine a little closer whenever he thought about it. It seemed as though the two were following a similar path. He just hoped it turned out as well for them as it had for him.

Rachel took them each by a hand and led them to their seats of honor. All of the originals were up at the front. Technically Blaine should have been in the second row with Sam but no one was going to tell him he couldn’t sit next to his husband. Or, rather, no one was going to tell Rachel no. She was on a leadership rampage and there wasn’t a single person alive willing to intervene. Well, maybe Jesse would have, but he wasn’t invited to this alumni reunion due to his tenure with the New Directions not being an honest desire to be one of them but rather an elaborate prank. He was spending the day visiting the McKinley he never truly got to enjoy because of his dedication to Vocal Adrenaline.

“Let’s begin! First up, we have the Trouble Tones!”

They had convinced the marching band to help them out, and it took everyone’s breath away as the trumpets blared out. “Are you ready?” one of the girls purred out.

“It’s time for me to take it,  
I’m the boss right now -  
Not gonna fake it.  
Not when you go down  
‘Cause this is my game  
And you better come to play.”

Mercedes let the other former Trouble Tones in a loud, overzealous scream. The Trouble Tones had earned the cheers though. They were amazing.

“I used to hold my freak back  
Now I’m letting go  
I make my own choice  
Yeah I run this show  
So leave the lights on  
No, you can’t make me behave

So you say I’m complicated  
That I must be outta my mind  
But you’ve had me underrated (rated, rated)

What’s wrong with being  
What’s wrong with being  
What’s wrong with being confident?

What’s wrong with being  
What’s wrong with being  
What’s wrong with being confident?”

It was not a let down. If all high school talent shows went like this then, well, there would certainly be no need for ‘good job you tried’ awards. Everyone here was doing more than just trying. They were excelling for their age. There were skits that made the alumni roll with laughter and a pianist that drove them all to tears. The Cheerios could still break a crowd into a screaming standing ovation.

“You were amazing,” Blaine called out to a shy girl who had performed a dance blindfolded. She pulled the blindfold off and gave him a little smile.

“Thank you for your time,” she told them, her voice barely loud enough to reach the front row. Her hands were leaves in a windstorm.

“You’re like a brave mouse that conquered a lion,” Brittany offered.

“Find me after auditions end,” Mike added. “If you’re interested in dancing for a living.”

“Those costumes are amazing!” Kurt called out to another group. “Broadway needs costuming talent like yours.” Their bird performance hadn’t been that good but it was easy to lose sight of that with such spectacular make up and costuming. “If any of you want an in, talk to me. I might have some contacts for you.” Beyond just himself and Isabelle, Kurt had made friends with every costume department for every performance he’d been a part of since graduating. As well as Rachel’s and Blaine’s. Costuming was just a gorgeous art, he couldn’t help it.

“Next,” Rachel kept things going on. They couldn’t spend more than five minutes on every performance no matter how much her former classmates wanted to gush over their legacies. “The New Directions.”

The lights went out. Kurt caught sight of his and Blaine’s kids lingering at the doorway. It was hard to miss since that was the only light left. They looked worried about something. But they couldn’t step out now. That would get them accusations of being unfair. So he texted Jesse. Can you check on Alex and Lexi and their friends? Make sure they’re ok?

He didn’t get a text back.

The New Directions shuffled quietly onto the floor. The light from the hallway didn’t hide them as much as they’d probably hoped, but the alums all got the idea they were going for. As the music started, Yasmine and Courtney lit up their costumes with the colors of yellow and green. It was beautiful, just simply beautiful.

“See you walking ‘round like it’s a funeral, not so serious, girl; why those feet cold? We just getting started - don’t you tip toe, tip toe.”

When Courtney took over, they put themselves right in front of Yasmine and made absolute certain that the entire spotlight was on them. It worked, with their dance moves and the whole light show thing they had going on, but Kurt couldn’t help but make a face. Even Rachel had never been like that.

“Ah! Waste time with a masterpiece, don’t waste time with a masterpiece. You should be rolling with me, you should be rolling with me. You’re a real life fantasy, you're a real life fantasy. But you’re moving so carefully; let’s start living dangerously.”

Then, all together, the rest of the New Directions lit up as they lept up to sing along. It was a rainbow of gorgeous lights, moving in perfect harmony.

“Talk to me baby - I’m going blind from this sweet, sweet craving.  
Let’s lose our minds and go crazy crazy.  
Ah ya ya ya ya I keep on hoping we’ll eat cake by the ocean!”

Their performance was three minutes of absolute eye and ear candy. It left everyone speechless. Even Rachel had to pause as the gym lights clicked back on to gather herself and figure out what words she wanted to use. “Wow. That was impressive guys. Thank you. Next we have...Unnamed group of performers? Guys?” As the New Directions left, Kurt could see them high fiving each other. He nudged Blaine.

“I see it,” he whispered.

“Guys are you there?” Jesse ran in, leaning over and whispering in her ear. “Oh, ok I guess they’re going last.”

“What happened?” Kurt asked. Rachel waved him off.

“In the meantime, the next group is...Yarg...Yure...Gari...uhm.”

“Gibbrish!” a teen proudly informed her. “The title is more of a visual treat than something that’s meant to be read.”

“Oh. Ok. Well. Let’s see what you’ve got.” Kurt found himself balling his hands up. He didn’t notice until Blaine took hold of his hand and started massaging it. This was what it felt like to be the teacher or the judge. To know that something fishy was going on but being trapped from doing anything about it. Because there was no proof and because they had no way to go and find out what had happened.

Blaine vowed to forgive the teachers of his first school, at least a little. There was no excuse for the extreme ignorance, but after this week he felt that he understood them better than he ever had before. They had severe limitations to what they could do unless something escalated to more dangerous levels. Just like he and Kurt were severely limited now.

They were quiet as the last seven or so performers wooed the audience even more. Everyone could agree that this easily could have been the showcase. Perhaps someday they could have an all day showcase and invite the entire city to come and witness how great things were going. The school board definitely seemed to like what they were seeing when they popped in for the very last few. Kurt took in a sharp breath. It was no or never. His students were going to be disqualified if they didn’t come in.

“Jesse,” Blaine whispered to him, pointing as their friend hovered around the door. Rachel looked over to him for her cues. He was holding up his finger. Just one more minute. She needed to stall.

“Ok, guys make sure you didn’t miss any notes,” she told everyone. “Flip back to the unnamed group’s page. Uhm, after they perform we’re going to meet on the stage in the auditorium. Breadstix is delivering food for us. Including non pasta options for those of you who refuse to eat pasta. Uhm...Oh! Here they are!”

Alex and Lexi ushered in all their friends. Kurt noticed the violin case - it wasn’t the school’s. It was new, and dark blue. There wasn’t going to be time to address that though. Their kids performed, shaky but strong, and then they were dragged off with the rest of the alums for the judging. Kurt felt his nerves deep in his gut. They hadn’t stood out or been as loud as everyone else. They hadn’t stood out anymore than the New Directions way back at their very first sectionals. Which, sure, they’d won that, but it definitely wasn’t because their performance had been showstopping. The other groups had just not been very good, mostly because they hadn’t had the same amenities that the New Directions had somehow managed to have.

Everyone quickly agreed that since there was such a wide variety they should choose a variety of acts to showcase that evening. Dance and theater were easy choices. “I think we should encourage that bird group to help with everyone’s costumes tonight,” Unique said. “They clearly have a talent with fashion and you can never have too much help backstage.”

“Well, you can,” Blaine laughed, “but six people handling all costume emergencies shouldn’t be too bad.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Kurt volunteered. He was familiar with the ‘you’re great but not what we’re looking for but maybe we can use you for this instead’ speech. So he knew what not to do to try and minimize making them feel bad about their talents. People in New York didn’t have that skill. Which meant he’d built up a thick skin. Well, thick enough to wait until he got home and curled up in Blaine’s arms to let it show. It had nothing to do with his talent - he knew that. He was just ‘too gay’ for most roles yet. It sucked but he kept at it since that was the only way to bring about change.

These guys were more like...Artie. They wanted one thing so badly but they had an immense talent elsewhere that if cultivated would give them great success. Of course with years of practice they could also get good at performing. But they were so good with costumes already.

“What about a choir?” Rachel brought up. “There were what, six groups that fit that? Depending on how we define it…”

“Choir should be the traditional show choir,” Quinn said. “Those groups that were more like bands should be separate. So yes, there were six.”

“I don’t know about you but I think the boys were amazing,” Spencer piped up.

“Amazing or attractive?” Santana grumbled.

“Ew! They’re kids.”

“You’re nineteen. You are still a kid.”

“No fighting!” Rachel snapped. “Stay on topic. We only have an...hour to finish this. So stay on topic. What about the Duly Noteds was so good?”

“You don’t get much of that acapella style anymore,” Spencer said. “And...I always kind of liked it. It’s amazing what sounds people can make.”

“Gay football player secretly wanted to be a Warbler, good to know,” Santana whispered.

“I did not!”

“Stay on topic!” Rachel snapped again.

“I know I’m biased,” Mercedes interrupted, “but the Trouble Tones were basically flawless. For only having a week to prepare, they didn’t look like they missed a single step, and they didn’t miss a single note, and they didn’t need to be over the top to make their point. And I do believe I saw Puck cry.”

“I did not!” Puck interjected. “I just had some very strong feelings about that performance...Finn really liked that song.” The group sobered up for a moment, several eyes turning to his picture still hanging on the wall. “But...they were really good. I vote for them.”

“Any votes for the New Directions?” Kitty said. There was some mumbling, but no one spoke up on their behalf.

“They were talented,” Kurt said, eliciting more than a few odd looks. “If nothing else, they are amazing performers. If...If I was blindly judging a choir contest, I’d probably vote for them.”

“But they were so over the top!” Tina complained.

“But being over the top didn’t take away from their performance. It’s not like the hairography fiasco. Their vocals were great, their moves were spectacular, and the rest of it? That was just theater. It was a five star performance from start to finish.”

“Wait, let me get this straight,” Santana stopped him. “Those brats drowned you in a rainbow of ice and you’re defending them?”

“We don’t have proof, but...Oh who am I kidding. They’re not good people, but they are extremely talented. And if we’d been judged based on how honorable we were when we were in high school, we never would have won a single award.”

“Well, we’d probably have taken nationals that first year,” Artie said. “Since, you know, all the other teams either cheated during the performance or attacked us before one…”

“That...is unfortunately true. And that’s depressing. But...I’m just saying, they are talented. But I’m not voting for them. My vote is the Trouble Tones. The New Directions weren’t the only perfect performance up there. Mercedes was right; they were perfect too. They just weren’t so theatrical about it. And theatrical isn’t always going to win first prize. As Tina pointed out, it went too far. It was too much. The Trouble Tones is a better fit for what we’re looking for.”

“Broadway has made you brutal,” Brittany whispered. Kurt shrugged. It was all true. “Don’t we have to pick the New Directions?”

“They offered the most,” Rachel offered. “And they went above and beyond, and all in just three and a half days. They’re the epitome of a show choir. I don’t think they went too far with that performance either. Sure it looked a bit like a Cheerios routine at times, but the Cheerios did win seven straight national titles, and they’re working on breaking that streak now. They’ve only lost once. There’s a reason for that.”

“And thank goodness that reason wasn’t just Sue Sylvester,” Quinn whispered.

“Cheerleading and show choir are vastly different,” Kurt argued.

“Not that different,” Blaine countered him. The darting glare had him throwing up his hands in apology. “I was on the squad too. The goals are similar. The main difference is the set up and the moves. But honestly some cheerleading moves in a show choir routine can be a great way to break free from what’s normal. And vice versa. It’s no coincidence that so many of us were pulling double duty.”

“Maybe we should all write down our choices for that one and tally the votes,” Mercedes offered to keep the peace. “What about the other groups? There were a couple of mixed bands performing. What about picking one of them?”

“What was with that last group?” Kitty said. “They didn’t have a name, they weren’t prepared to go on during their scheduled time-”

“But the violinist was divine,” Unique told her. “She made me cry.”

“I loved the whole group,” Jane said. “But...Kitty’s right. They didn’t seem ready.”

“Something happened before they could perform,” Blaine spoke up. Kurt had been biting his tongue because he knew he was horribly biased and that wasn’t fair to all the other good groups that had gone on. Blaine didn’t have those reservations. “That wasn’t the usual violin they practiced with.”

“That doesn’t change that in the real world they can’t do things like that,” Kitty continued. “If they’d pulled that at a real audition-”

“But this isn’t some big broadway audition, or whatever they’re working towards. This is high school. And this little contest isn’t going to be more than a little blip on their resumes. It’s barely even training for the future. Nothing will ever be set up like this was in the real world either. And given all the oddities, they did great.”

“Literally everyone did great. Even those science experiments were amazing. Everyone at this school it incredibly talented. That doesn’t mean they should perform tonight. Not when we’re building a line up of the best talents this school has to offer.”

“Speaking of the science experiments,” Kurt murmured. “Do you suppose we have room for one of them?”

“For science?” Rachel asked. “Not to be negative or put down science, because everyone knows science is incredibly important, so important that the government tries to force everyone to focus only on that these days...but. Tonight is about performance. You can’t really perform science.” Kurt let out a sigh. “Come on guys, we need to hurry up and figure things out. We have less than an hour until we have to announce the winners at lunch.”  
\---------  
Everyone crammed into the auditorium right after lunch. Quinn couldn’t help herself but to talk to some of the seniors, if they were willing to listen. What Blaine had said earlier about this not being the entire future was right, but at the same time it wasn’t. This was going to be one of the last big things a lot of these kids did that they could really use to get into the college of their dreams, and if they used it right then they could get into literally any school they chose.

“Don’t forget that some people might not want to go to college,” Shelby mentioned as she approached them. “But what is important is having a dream, and a plan to achieve it. And be realistic about that plan. Being realistic doesn’t mean giving up. Just...know you might work at a McDonald’s for a few years before you can really get started. It happens. That’s normal.”

“Right,” Quinn echoed, following after Shelby after her daughter’s mom waved her away from them. “I wish I had another week to talk to them about the future.”

“I know. I heard Will is looking for substitute teachers. If you think you can commit to the rest of the year.”

“I-No. I couldn’t. Maybe. Anyway. What did you want to talk about?”

“I heard you weren’t feeling too positive about Kurt and Blaine’s choice. I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? It’s not my life. It’s theirs. And that kid’s. And that kid’s parents. The birth parents. Or birth mom. Or surrogate and whoever gives them the egg. I know I said I would but…”

“It’s not as easy now that they’re actually trying to have a baby?”

“No. Did they-”

“I think they know. I mean, you tried to talk them out of it. And they really want a baby so I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“I don’t want them to not be parents...I just...Think of the mom. You know what I’m talking about. Rachel and I talk about it sometimes, what it’s like. For her.”

“Because you worry about Beth. I know. You love her, and I love Rachel. But I’m not Rachel’s mom. I know it’s different for me since I didn’t meet her until she was sixteen. And it was really hard, all that time not knowing how she was doing...It really depends on the girl, what she can handle. I chose my path. You didn’t get that chance.”

“I chose to give her up.”

“You chose to give her the best life she could possibly have. You’re a good mother Quinn.”

“But I’m not a mom.”

“Someday you will be. And you are going to be the greatest mom I’ve ever met. But you have to accept and move on from everything that happened first, and we have to stop having this conversation over and over. I know a therapist who-”

“I don’t need therapy!”

“Quinn-”

“I’m fine. I can take care of myself.” Shelby reached out but it was futile. Quinn stormed off and immersed herself in a cluster of alumni for security.

Blaine leaned over Kurt’s shoulder to leave a quick and shameless kiss on his cheek. It was unprofessional but literally no one was watching. Everyone was wrapped up in their own conversations and finally McKinnley high school didn’t care in the slightest that two boys were dating. And Blaine had wanted to do that since that first prom, so he’d stolen his chance while he had it. “Well hello there,” Kurt teased, shying away but still taking his hand. “I’m thinking about mutiny.”

“Mutiny?”

“Hmm, you’ll see.”

“Ohhh keeping secrets from your husband? That could be dangerous.”

“I think you’ll like this. But it does require me staying close to Rachel until this is over.”

“Now you really have to tell me.”

“You’ll see.” Kurt squeezed his hand before turning to take his place next to the former New Directions captain. He was the closest thing she had to a former co-captain, being Finn’s step brother and having been Rachel’s confidant for two years of her tenure. That was what his excuse would be if he needed to explain why he was muscling his way into the prime state real estate. Santana was definitely giving him a very scary stink eye.

“All right everyone!” Mr. Shue yelled over the chatter. It made him happy to see the school so lively and acting like human beings. This was how teens were supposed to be. Even if that meant they were a handful sometimes. “Settle down, we have the final decisions as to who will be performing tonight. And to announce it, I’m handing the reigns over to the first captain of the New Directions. You know her well by now I’m sure - Rachel Berry!”

The crowd clapped, sure. But it was a polite, quiet clap. There wasn’t the same sort of cheering that there had been when Mr. Schue had started talking. It was almost as if Mr. Higgins was back handling the assembly. Except Rachel was actually smiling and trying her hardest. It was painful to watch.

“It’s been so hard to choose, everyone who entered was absolutely amazing. But we broke it down into groups and picked one from each, to represent the diverse talent this school has to offer.” She nudged Santana. “Want to tell them what the groups are?”

“Uh, sure. I hope you guys are proud because I don’t think any other school in this whole country has this much to offer. We chose a film project, a theatrical performance, a dance troupe, one of our amazing show choir performances, soloist, and a group project that really didn’t fall into any other category - I guess you could call it that same old high school band kind of thing that everyone wants when they’re in high school, but that’s not really accurate. But other and miscellaneous just sound so lame. So I guess we can call them the surprise underdogs.” Santana paused, glancing to Rachel, then turning to hand the microphone over to Artie. “You’re our film expert. Why don’t you start us off?”

“Thank you,” Artie said carefully, surprised at the generosity his friends were displaying. That was how things went - Tina announced the soloist, Mike and Brittany announced the dance group together, and Quinn the theater piece. Then the mic made its way into Kurt’s hands. He knew what Quinn was having him do. But he had plans of his own. So he took advantage of the moment.

“You know, our legacy is full of nothing if not incredible surprises. When we first started, we were the weirdest, most unlikely mess of people to ever assemble in one club. Mostly from unexpected places too. See back then jocks and geeks and nerds and freaks just didn’t mix. And then of course there was a whole war to just flat out remove the arts, because...If I remember right, they tried to pin all the negatives of teenagehood all on a bunch of kids wanting to sing.”

“Where is this going?” Rachel whispered between her teeth, her face keeping it’s bright smile. He subtly waved his hand at her to try and placate the overly dramatic star.

“We like to think we’re more enlightened now that we have an arts program that will never go anywhere, but without honoring both sides of this debate we’re really just going in circles. That’s why-” He paused, just briefly, to look right into Rachel’s eyes. She was going to make him pay for this. “It is my great pleasure to announce another surprise, taking a sixth spot. The Science of the Dance.” The science geeks let out a giant cheer at this upset as Kurt linked his arm with Blaine to pass the microphone on so that someone else could have the honor of announcing what he was supposed to have announced. Blaine took a deep breath to get his own giddiness under control. Their presentation had been amazing, and it would fit well right between the film and dance pieces. And the best part was they only took seven minutes to blow the mind.

Kurt gave Rachel his cheekiest grin as she tried to glare daggers into his face. He had absolutely zero regrets.

“That is...a great surprise,” his man fumbled a bit trying to figure out where to pick up. He glanced out in the audience, glimpsing Lexi briefly motioning down at her phone. So Blaine took a hint and glanced at the text.

_Whether we win or not, thank you both so much for everything this week._

_Oh and we finally named ourselves_.

“Blaine!” Rachel hissed. He flashed her his brightest smile before turning back to the students.

“But that’s not the only surprise this week. As Santana put it earlier, we also have the super awesome surprise groups that mixed different kinds of performing. I can promise you when we came here for this week we weren’t expecting what we found. This school is bursting at the seams with talent. Everyone should be proud - you’re all going to go very far. And I don’t just mean as performers. The ambition you all showed this week will take you wherever you want to go. But, personally, no one surprised me more than the group of students who will be performing in the ‘surprise underdogs’ spot. It took them a while to get everything together, and even longer to even come up with a name, but it is my great pleasure to announce that the group performing tonight will be...the Outcasts!”

Everyone clapped politely, and there were a few cheers as well. It wasn’t hard for them to guess who he was talking about - there was only one group that had managed to sign up without a group name. The school itself had nothing against them, but it was not lost on Kurt, Blaine, Sam, and Rachel that many many many students glanced down to the New Directions as they formed their response. Those kids owned the school, worse than the football team and cheerleaders ever had.

Blaine moved quickly across the stage, passing the microphone on for the last and most important of the announcements.

“So all of this is all well and good, but I know there’s something that everyone has been waiting for-” Mercedes crooned out, smoothly transitioning from the little upset that Kurt and Blaine had caused. Mostly Kurt. But Blaine’s announcement had been fun too. “It is my greatest honor to announce the winning show choir-” She paused again as she took the temperature of the crowd.

It was lukewarm, at best, because they thought they had it all figure out already. Of course what teen ever had all the answers?

“THE TROUBLE TONES!”

The students took a moment to realize what they had just heard. But the roar of the crowd quickly took over the gym. “Looks like we made the right choice,” Rachel whispered to her best friend.

“You doubted that?” Kurt replied.

“I’m worried about the New Directions. From what I’ve heard, they’ve never lost anything.”

“It’s time for them to learn.”

\----------------------  
The punishment Rachel laid down for Kurt’s little bit of mutiny made him almost regret his decision. But not quite. It was worth being on the clean up crew to see the bright smiles on those kids faces. They’d completely sold out, and then some. There were people willing to stand along the edges in order to watch the performances. “This is everything we wanted our fundraiser night to be,” Rachel crooned as she passed by while Blaine was helping Kurt change one of the trash cans.

“Having a bake sale before the show was genius,” Blaine added. That had been Will’s plan, of course, and Rachel had eagerly gone along because selling saran-wrapped brownies meant that there would be full trash cans and a fair amount of crumbs for her mutinous friend to clean up.

“How’s the first performance going?” Kurt asked. He could hear the short film blaring over the speakers. It sounded great, and they had original music too. Artie had encouraged them to enter it in contests to get some exposure and start building their resume, and maybe they’d see each other at Sundance in a few years.

“It’s great - no one is on their phones,” Rachel told him, as though that was the best indicator as to how good it was. Kurt supposed he did see more people on their phones during bad movies than good ones, or even during boring performances in the theater.

Their moment of basking in this great decision of theirs to hold this little competition was cut short when the sound of breaking wood and bodies against metal echoed down the hallway. “YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE HERE!” someone yelled. The boys ran in that direction. Rachel didn’t even try to keep up - she had on her fanciest high heels for this event. Instead she grabbed Sam and Will from where they were keeping an eye by the auditorium doors.

“Stop being jealous Yas,” Lexi replied. Alex pushed his sister back in an effort to protect her from her own mouth.

“It’s not jealousy, it’s a fact. The only reason you, or any of those stupid Terrible Tones, or those stupid nerds, are here is because you’re teacher’s pets. None of you have any actual talent or skill or whatever it was those nerds are here for-”

“They’re here because their presentation on the science of dancing is mind blowing,” Kurt stepped in. “The Outcasts are here because they are a band with exceptional promise that bring something new to the table, and the Trouble Tones were picked instead of the New Directions because they, quite simply, better embody the message that we want to send about McKinley.”

“What’s going on here?” Will said as he ran around the corner. Everyone fell silent, each sizing up the others to determine what course of action would be best.

“I don’t think the judging was fair,” Yasmine announced after a minute.

“Well, for one, the alumni chose who they thought was best. Two, this wasn’t some big competition. This isn’t going to affect your chances at sectionals, so maybe it’s best if you just let this go. You aren’t always going to be the winners. Different audiences are going to like different things.”

“But-”

“No buts. Just do better next time.” Lexi and Alex were clearly biting their tongues. Kurt remembered what it was like. Standing in front of a teacher, everyone knew the other person was harming him, and he just played it off like nothing was wrong. He wished they’d say something. But then, he also knew that they didn’t have enough proof against the bullies. “And you guys, shouldn’t you be backstage? The second performance is on, and you’re fourth, I’d recommend being ready.”

“Yes sir,” Alex said politely, hooking his hand in his sister’s arm and pulling her away. The New Directions leads left in the other direction, most likely leaving for the night.

“There, everything’s settled.” The three young men watched as their teacher walked off, proudly thinking he’d handled the problem.

“That’s why the public school system almost failed us,” Blaine grumbled quietly.

“Yeah, but what else was he supposed to do?” Kurt sighed.

“I know. It just...it’s so sad that they can get away with acting like that.”

“Technically they didn’t do anything wrong,” Sam reminded them. “At least not that can be proved. Personally I think they should buy you new clothes but, well, can’t prove it.” Blaine subconsciously wrapped a protective arm around his love. Kurt didn’t need the support - it was more for Blaine’s comfort than his own, really. But he did appreciate it.

“I’m fine,” he whispered. “Why don’t we head backstage and keep an eye on things? Make sure nothing else gets out of hand?” With a sigh, the man agreed. Kurt knew abandoning his cleaning duties early wouldn’t end well for him tonight, but he honestly didn’t care. His dad would help out and he’d be warm and snug in his bed in no time.

Backstage - and the hallway behind it, since not everyone could fit backstage - was a wonderful fest of just pure joy. “Alright, Outcasts, you’re next,” Quinn directed. “Is everyone ready?”

“Almost,” Lexi said as she tested her violin.

“What happened to the old one?” Kurt asked her.

“It...broke. I mean, it was the school’s violin, so I guess somebody practiced with it and broke it. But Jesse helped me get a new one.”

“And this one is all hers,” Jesse added. “You kids are going to kill it out there.”

“Line up, you’re on in two minutes,” Quinn interrupted.

“Break a leg out there,” everyone chorused. It was easily the ideal backstage situation all around.

“Did they say what they’re performing tonight?” Blaine asked. The familiar instrumentation caught his ears quickly. “How did they-” Kurt put a hand on his shoulder to shush him.

“Who’s to say, who’s not okay?  
The breakaways, will outlast, will outlast.  
Sticks and stones, won’t break these bones -  
They’re just some drones  
To get past. I’ll get past.

Feeling downcast, like an outcast?  
Underdogs, it’s time to bite back.”

“They’re so good with this song,” Marley whispered to them as they slipped up into the wings. They were, too. They’d completely re-worked it for their group and it had really worked out well for them. Or maybe that was just the passion shining through.

“We are, we are, we are, we are  
Stronger from every scar, scar.  
Brighter than any star, star.  
We’re the outcast, outcast.  
There’s nothing you can say  
To blow our dreams away.  
We rise above the fray  
We’re the outcast, outcast.

In this skin, I’m better than  
I've ever been, so take that, yeah, take that.  
The test of time will show who shines.  
It will be mine -  
Yeah, the last laugh, the last laugh

Feeling downcast, like an outcast  
Underdogs, it’s time to bite back

 

We are, we are, we are, we are  
Stronger from every scar, scar.  
Brighter than any star, star.  
We’re the outcast, outcast.  
There’s nothing you can say  
To blow our dreams away.  
We rise above the fray  
We’re the outcast, outcast.”

The audience cheered as the kids jumped forward and the surpisingly fitting violin worked it’s way through the melody. “To think they did this all on their own,” Kurt whispered.

“I’d rather be outrageous than  
Just another door pushing again.  
I’d rather be a rainbow than  
Just some shade of grey.

Feeling downcast, like an outcast  
Underdogs, it’s time to bite back

We are, we are, we are, we are  
Stronger from every scar, scar.  
Brighter than any star, star.  
We’re the outcast, outcast.  
There’s nothing you can say  
To blow our dreams away.  
We rise above the fray  
We’re the outcast, outcast.”

The kids took their cheers with grace and poise. Mostly. Lexi was certainly milking the positive attention. The others seemed a bit shier. Still, it was clear that this was much overdue.

Something special was happening tonight. Everyone could feel it - kind of like that feeling on the ride home after their very first sectionals win. There was a comraderie among all the students, injected with a healthy dose of pure joy. Kurt found his way to Rachel, but nothing needed to be said. They were doing something right with the kids. Finally.

The ladies of the Trouble Tones rounded out the night with a glorious performance of Exes and Ohs. It was a spectacular show and definitely lived up to all expectations.

“With a little hard work and a lot of love, they could take nationals this year,” Mercedes whispered to Quinn.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“One, two, three, they gonna run back to me,  
Climbing over mountains and a-sailing over seas.  
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me -  
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave.  
My ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me,  
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all.  
They won't let go.  
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me,  
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all.  
They won't let-” Instead of the end of the song, the sound system played back a screeching sort of sound that had everyone - even those in the hall backstage - clamp down on their ears. The feedback continued wailing for several minutes, making it very clear that the noise had no desire to end on its own like when a microphone just screamed for a few seconds.

Sam did the only thing he could think of - he switched off the breaker and cut the power to the entire auditorium.

“Everyone say calm, hold on we’re working to fix the problem!” Rachel yelled as the crowd started to murmur. “Hang tight, give us five minutes.”

“Who did that?” Will asked as he ran around the corner.

“I cut the power,” Sam confessed.

“And I caught the culprits,” Puck announced, pulling two kids along with him.

“Yas and Courtney? Guys please tell me you didn’t.”

“I know I’m not the smartest guy, but they were lingering around the sound system and they had something hooked up to it. That’s not normal.”

“No...it’s not.” Sam put his hands to his head and let out a deep sigh. “You two are better than this! I can’t believe you’d do something so...seriously? I know, I know sharing is hard for you, but this is completely insane. You are both so much better than this.”

“You’re both suspended, for a week,” Will said. “And we’ll figure out the rest of your punishment later. At the very least you’re definitely suspended from extracurricular activities for the rest of the semester.” He held a hand up to stop anyone’s attempt to stop him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not at his McKinley. He wasn’t sure how he was going to handle things going forward but for right now he knew his answer. They were not going to be allowed to continue on their power rampage.

“How are we going to do that last performace,” Rachel blurted as she ran off the stage. “No, should we do it? Or send everyone home? But then you can’t just say ‘ok that’s all show’s over the end’ because that’s tacky but we can’t exactly just go out there and perform now how would we even explain it-”

“Leave the explaining to me,” Quinn said, taking her arm to halt the girl. “We just...need some flashlights.”

“Flashlights?”

“Yeah. For light. Like holding candles. But candles are a fire hazard.”

“There’s a whole bunch in the janitor’s closet,” Sam said. “I’ll get them. And you two-”

“Should perform with us,” Kurt jumped in. “As a bit of a swan song, for now?”

“Kurt-” Will started, but he had to admit, the gesture was a good idea. “Ok.”

“I love you,” Blaine whispered in his ear as everyone was lined up behind the closed curtain. The audience was chatting up a storm just beyond it. Quinn gave Rachel a small hug to offer confidence before stepping out and announcing their final piece: Don’t Stop Believing, by Journey, as performed by the alumni and the students.

It was the same old song one more time and yet each new voice added something that was somehow missing before.

“Just a small town girl  
Livin' in a lonely world.  
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere.”

Somehow, despite everything they had gone through and all the parts they’d landed and tours some of them had been on and accomplishments they’d made, the things they were accomplishing right here at McKinley held the most weight. This, above all else, was home. Sure there was home in LA or New York or wherever they were all ending up, but Lima, Ohio was the place they could always come back to when they needed an escape to unwind and recharge.

“Just a city boy  
Born and raised in South Detroit.  
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere.”

There were some hiccups right now, but from the way Payton was offering her hand out to Yas, there was definitely hope for a better tomorrow.

“A singer in a smokey room,  
The smell of wine and cheap perfume.  
For a smile they can share the night.  
It goes on and on and on and on-”


End file.
